Duke - May - Jun 2000 https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/issue/may-jun-2000 en Duke University Alumni Magazine https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/duke-university-alumni-magazine-114 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <a name="pagetop" id="pagetop"></a> <nobr><img src="storyhead.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /><img src="quadquotes.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /><img src="mayjun2.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /></nobr><center> <table width="600"><!------------------Begin Table--------------------><tr><td valign="TOP" width="250"> </td><td valign="TOP" width="450"><font face="Arial, Helvetica"> </font><center> <!----------------------Read Table------------------------> <table width="85%" cellpadding="2"><tr><td valign="TOP" width="49%"> <center> <img src="cqread.gif" /></center> <font size="2" style="font:10pt Arial"> <i>We asked the seniors in a seminar on magazine journalism to reflect on the books they'd like to read now that they're not bound by undergraduate reading requirements. </i><br /></font><p>"I'd pick anything by Wally Lamb," says Shannon Chany. "I've read <i>She's Come Undone</i> and was severely blown away; I've read it four times." A reflective Jeff Lam is drawn to <i>Tuesdays With Morrie</i>, by Mitch Albom, which describes the renewed relationship between the author and his old college professor. "It is a book about taking time out of your life to find meaning in your life." </p><p> From some class reading assignments, Emily Gates developed an interest in author (and Duke parent) Tom Wolfe. One of her post-graduation goals is to read Wolfe's rollicking treatment of the Sixties, hippies, and the drug culture in <i>America, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test</i>. </p><p> Ben Sands wants to read a modern classic, <i>On the Road</i>, by Jack Kerouac. "As I prepare for my life 'on the road,' I am interested to hear Kerouac's fresh and challenging take on the order of things," he says. With personal and professional interests in mind, Alexis Sherwin is looking forward to Rachel Carson's environmental classic, <i>Silent Spring</i>. "I have heard so much about it and, since I am entering law school to study environmental law, I hope it will serve as a source of inspiration," she says. </p><p> Kelly Malcom observes that, at least for a while, she may be luxuriating in reading opportunities. "Seeing as I am still unemployed, I will have ample time for reading," she reports. The first book she'll pick up is the latest edition of the career advice guide <i>What Color Is Your Parachute</i>, "then maybe something by Iyanla VanZant or Deepak Chopra to get in touch with my spiritual side. Finally, I've been dying to read one of the much-touted Harry Potter books, which the under-ten set has been raving about. Gotta stay young!" </p><center> <img src="cqask.gif" /></center> <font size="2" style="font:10pt Arial"> <i>What does the Elian Gonzalez case teach us about the rights of children to speak in judicial proceedings in which they have an interest? </i><br /><b> </b><br /></font><p>It is generally the case in U.S. law that children are not entitled to be heard in legal proceedings, including those in which they have an interest. This doctrine is premised upon two related notions. </p><p> First, children are as a legal matter presumed to be incompetent, and only competent persons are entitled formally to participate in legal proceedings. Children are thought to lack the knowledge, experience, independence, and wisdom necessary to make good judgments and choices about their lives. The law is particularly concerned that younger children are often developmentally incapable of distinguishing truth from fantasy, and are often if not always influenced in their thinking by those adults who care for them. </p><p> The only exceptions to this hard-and-fast rule exist in some (but not all) states, where adolescents who are found to be "mature minors" may be heard even when they disagree with their parents, and where children about ten or older are asked their views in divorce custody disputes. Significantly, even when these children are permitted to speak, their opinions are not determinative. </p><p> The second notion underlying this doctrine is that a child's parents are uniquely situated because of their biological and emotional ties to the child, and their investment in the child, to determine what is in the child's best interests. Because of this, parents have an almost absolute right to raise their children as they wish. This natural right also resides in the Constitution and can only be abridged where there is solid evidence of abuse, neglect, or abandonment. It cannot be abridged by a child when the child disagrees with his parents. </p><p> Federal immigration law largely mirrors this well-established domestic law. If an accompanied or unaccompanied minor has a lawful parent either in the U.S. or in his country of origin, and there is no good evidence that this parent has abused, neglected or abandoned the child, the parent will speak for his child in immigration-related proceedings, including in asylum proceedings. There is an exception to this rule that permits a child to speak for himself, against the wishes of his parents, "in an appropriate case" where there is evidence that the parents are ignoring the child's "well-founded fear of persecution" in his country of origin. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), which administers these regulations, has never interpreted or been required to interpret this particular provision to apply to children under twelve. </p><p> Thus, the INS's categorical position in the Elian Gonzalez case is that it need not even consider that the boy has filed a petition for asylum. While he did write his name "Elian" on the bottom of such an application completed by his Miami relatives and their lawyers, his own decision (if it could be called that) to do so is legally irrelevant. Moreover, those relatives and lawyers have no legal basis to substitute for his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, since he has never been found to have abused, neglected, or abandoned Elian. <br /><b></b></p><p>--Doriane Lambelet Coleman, a child law specialist, is senior lecturing fellow at the law school </p><p> <!----End Question----> </p><p> </p></td><td valign="TOP" width="1%"> <img src="gray.gif" height="2550" width="2" align="LEFT" /></td><td valign="TOP" width="49%"> <font size="2" style="font:10pt Arial"> </font><center> <img src="cqheard.gif" /></center> <p>"I don't think it's beyond our power to devise a system in which we have clusters of people living near each other who have relatively common goals without creating a fraternity ghetto or a selective living angle in which everyone is off by themselves." <br /><b></b></p><p> --President Nannerl O. Keohane, in The Chronicle, on the idea of clustering similar living groups in certain West Campus quadrangles as part of new residential plans being reviewed </p><p> <!----End Question----> </p><p>"What kind of a message is our government sending when a nineteen-year-old can die for his country, smoke, drive, and even vote, but can't enjoy a beer?" <br /><b></b></p><p>--from a Chronicle editorial, "Open the Taps," calling for the university to lobby to lower the national drinking age as part of a solution to campus binge-drinking concerns </p><p> <!----End Question----> </p><p>"We all want to believe that we can keep college athletics very pure and that once we pay athletes it would taint that. But I do see kids struggling to get by financially. Obviously, something needs to be done, but we will need to proceed with caution." <br /><b></b></p><p>--Gail Goestenkors, Duke women's basketball coach, in the News & Observer, in a forum on stipends for college athletes </p><p> <!----End Question----> </p><p> </p><p> </p></td></tr><!----------------------Read Table------------------------></table></center><p> </p><p> </p></td></tr><!------------------End Table--------------------></table><p><br /><img src="dkblu.gif" width="600" height="2" /><br clear="ALL" /></p><p></p><center> <a href="quotes.html#pagetop"><img border="0" src="totop.gif" /><br /></a> </center><p> </p></center> <!-- analytics --><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript"> <!--//--><![CDATA[// ><!-- _uacct = "UA-1422454-1";urchinTracker(); //--><!]]> </script><!-- analytics --> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2000-06-01T00:00:00-04:00">Thursday, June 1, 2000</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/default_images/dukmag-horizontal-placeholder.jpg" width="238" height="140" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/may-jun-2000" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">May - Jun 2000</a></li></ul></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> No <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue Thu, 01 Jun 2000 08:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18499176 at https://alumni.duke.edu Duke University Alumni Magazine https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/duke-university-alumni-magazine-113 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <a name="pagetop" id="pagetop"></a> <nobr><img src="storyhead.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /><img src="relink.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /><img src="mayjun2.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /></nobr><center> <table width="600"><!------------------Begin Table--------------------><tr><td valign="TOP" width="250"> </td><td valign="TOP" width="450"><font face="Arial, Helvetica"> <a name="story1" id="story1"></a> <b>THE SUBSTANCE OF STYLE</b> - <i>Related Links</i><br /></font><p> </p><ul><p></p><li><a href="http://www.si.edu/ndm/">Cooper-Hewitt</a> <p></p></li><li><a href="http://www.metmuseum.org">Metropolitan Museum of Art</a> <p></p></li><li><a href="http://www.moma.org">The Museum of Modern Art</a> </li></ul><a href="style.html"><img src="returnlink.gif" border="0" hspace="0" /></a> <p> </p><p><br /><a name="story2" id="story2"></a><font face="Arial, Helvetica"> <b>HABITS FOR THE HEART</b> - <i>Related Links</i><br /></font></p><p> </p><ul><p></p><li><a href="http://news.mc.duke.edu">Duke Medical Center</a> </li></ul><a href="heart.html"><img src="returnlink.gif" border="0" hspace="0" /></a> <p><br /><a name="story3" id="story3"></a><font face="Arial, Helvetica"> <b>CROSSING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE</b> - <i>Related Links</i><br /></font></p><p> </p><ul><p></p><li><a href="http://www.awc-hq.org/">www.awc-hq.org/</a> <p></p></li><li><a href="http://www.cra.org/">www.cra.org/</a> <p></p></li><li><a href="http://www.douglas.bc.ca/leaps/">www.douglas.bc.ca/leaps/</a> <p></p></li><li><a href="http://www.girlgeeks.com www.girlgeeks.com</A> &#10;<P><LI><A HREF="></a> <p></p></li><li><a href="http://www.iwt.org">www.iwt.org </a> <p></p></li><li><a href="http://www.systers.org/mecca/">www.systers.org/mecca/</a> <p></p></li><li><a href="http://www.webgrrls.com/">www.webgrrls.com/</a> <p></p></li><li><a href="http://www.witi.com/">www.witi.com/</a> </li></ul><a href="digital.html"><img src="returnlink.gif" border="0" hspace="0" /></a> <p><br /><a name="story5" id="story5"></a><font face="Arial, Helvetica"> <b>THE DOCTOR AND THE DIVINE</b> - <i>Related Links</i></font><br /></p><ul><p></p><li><a href="http://www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/alumni/dm4/dm4.html">www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/alumni/dm4/dm4.html</a>"Gazette," May-June 1996 issue <p></p></li><li><a href="http://www.iceol.duke.edu">Institute on Care at the End of Life</a> </li></ul><a href="divine.html"><img src="returnlink.gif" border="0" hspace="0" /></a> <p><br /><a name="story4" id="story4"></a><font face="Arial, Helvetica"> <b>Gazette</b> - <i>Related Links</i><br /></font></p><p> </p><ul><li><a href="http://www.dukealumni.com">Duke University Alumni Association</a> <p> </p></li><li><a href="http://scriptorium.duke.edu/gedney">Gedney Website</a> </li></ul><a href="gazette.html"><img src="returnlink2.gif" border="0" hspace="0" /></a> </td></tr><!------------------End Table--------------------></table><p><br /><img src="dkblu.gif" width="600" height="2" /><br clear="ALL" /></p><p></p><center> <a href="maglinks.html#pagetop"><img border="0" src="totop.gif" /><br /></a> </center><p> </p></center> <!-- analytics --><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript"> <!--//--><![CDATA[// ><!-- _uacct = "UA-1422454-1";urchinTracker(); //--><!]]> </script><!-- analytics --> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2000-06-01T00:00:00-04:00">Thursday, June 1, 2000</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/default_images/dukmag-horizontal-placeholder.jpg" width="238" height="140" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/may-jun-2000" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">May - Jun 2000</a></li></ul></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> No <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue Thu, 01 Jun 2000 08:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18499175 at https://alumni.duke.edu Duke University Alumni Magazine https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/duke-university-alumni-magazine-112 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <a name="pagetop" id="pagetop"></a> <nobr><img src="storyhead.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /><img src="firstperson.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /><img src="mayjun2.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /></nobr><center> <table width="600"><!------------------Begin Table--------------------><tr><td valign="TOP" width="150" align="LEFT"> <a href="maglinks.html#story2"><img src="storylink1.gif" border="0" align="LEFT" hspace="0" /></a><br /><!----------Email Feature-------------><br clear="ALL" /><p><br /><br clear="ALL" /></p><p><br /><img src="storylink6.gif" border="0" align="LEFT" hspace="0" /><br clear="ALL" /></p><form enctype="text/plain" name="mail" method="GET" action="mailto:robert.bliwise@duke.edu?subject=Heart Health Magazine Web Site Article Response" id="mail"> <input type="HIDDEN" value="Article" name="Article" /><!----------------Embedded Form ----------------><input type="image" src="submit.gif" border="0" alt="SUBMIT" hspace="3" height="24" width="73" /><!----------Email Feature-------------></form> </td><td valign="TOP" width="450"><font face="Arial, Helvetica"> <!----------------------Header----------------------------> </font><center><table width="90%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td valign="TOP" align="CENTER"> <b><font size="+3" face="Arial" style="font: 36pt Arial; font-weight:bold;">HABITS FOR THE HEART <!----title-----></font><br /></b></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP" align="CENTER"> <font size="+1" face="Arial, Helvetica" style="font: 14pt Arial, Helvetica; font-weight:bold;" color="#000088">FITNESS MATTERS <!---subtitle---></font><br /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP" align="CENTER"> <font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica" style="font: 12pt Arial, Helvetica;">BY ROBERT J. BLIWISE <!---byline----><br /><font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica" style="font: 12pt Arial, Helvetica;"> Illustration by Chris Obrion '86 <!--Photography--><br /></font></font></td></tr></table></center><p> </p><table width="250" units="PIXELS" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td valign="TOP" align="CENTER"> <!--------photo-------> <img src="firstperson.jpg" /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP" align="LEFT"> <font face="MSSans, Helvetica" size="-2"> </font></td></tr><!--------photo-------></table><p> </p><table width="90%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td valign="TOP" align="LEFT"> <!------Intro-------> <font face="Arial, Helvetica" color="#000088"><b>An education in putting stress under control, eating intelligently, and excercising faithfully. </b></font> </td></tr><!------Intro-------></table></td></tr></table></center> <p> <!----------------------Header----------------------------> <font face="Arial, Helvetica"> <img src="w.gif" align="LEFT" />e're part of an age of reinvention--the primary objects of reinvention, of course, being ourselves. </font></p><p>We know we need to be living better, or at least looking better. Even as we lead stressful lives, we try to avoid the detrimental effects of stress, like weakening of the immune system, disturbing sleep, and increasing risk of heart disease. We can't pass a supermarket checkout counter without magazines whose cover lines advertise the painless pursuit of better abs, even better abs, and the best of abs. If we leave the supermarket and turn on our Web search engine, we find 918 sites for "exercise" and 2,390 for "fitness." At the same time, we are consumed by an insatiable interest in eating: A quirky new culinary memoir of Barbados, Pig Tail 'N Breadfruit, describes the omelet as "something precious and fragile, like the body of a woman you love." </p><p>So where to learn about putting stress under control, eating intelligently, and exercising faithfully? The Duke Executive Health program thinks it's found a niche for itself. I like identifying myself with the language in the program brochure: "Someone who is active and involved. Decisive. Ambitious. Perhaps even somewhat competitive." But some of the more sobering information in that brochure would seem to give one healthy pause: About half a million Americans have strokes each year. Prostate cancer strikes three out of every ten men by the age of sixty. A tendency toward heart disease appears to be hereditary. About half of diabetes cases go undiagnosed. </p><p>As I mull over my executive-health credentials, I'm reminded that my most remarkable executive accoutrement is my genuine canvas Duke carrying case. And so long as I continue to outlast undergraduates on the tennis and racquetball courts, I'm not frustrated over my state of fitness. Still, a couple of days spent at the reassuringly named Center for Living, just off Duke's West Campus, seems like a worthy retreat. As the brochure puts it, with a healthy outpouring of adjectives, this is an "authoritative, comprehensive health and lifestyle enhancement program" aimed at helping those "who have taken charge of their lives to complete the picture by taking charge of their health." This is also a sign of a larger grabbing after the executive-health market: The Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, offers a "streamlined yet comprehensive" medical evaluation for executives; the Scripps Center for Executive Health in La Jolla, California, advertises "a custom-designed, whole-person, preventive maintenance health-care program that can enhance and enrich your life." </p><p></p><table hspace="5" vspace="5" width="25%" align="RIGHT" border="0"><tr><td align="TOP"><img src="firstperson1.jpg" border="0" /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP"><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size="2" color="000088"> Check-up time: the author and executive wannabe along with some of his good-health team (clockwise from left), Executive Health physician Kevin Waters, massage therapist Howard Anderson, fitness trainer John Hinkle, and psychologist Mark Wolever <br />Photo: Les Todd</font></td></tr></table><p>Duke Medical Center informally worked in executive health for decades; the department of medicine offered executive-health examinations at the request of companies. But there wasn't a defined group of people assigned to executive health, or set-aside space. The formal program began in 1991. In large part it reflects a growing accent on prevention in health care, according to its director, James Clapp '54. Some 600 executives annually go through a version of the routine that I'm about to follow. Those executives--some of whom are corporate-sponsored, some of whom schedule a visit on their own--come from such recognizable companies as Corning, John Deere, and General Motors. </p><p>In an initial visit to the program, an executive will receive a comprehensive health assessment, which includes a battery of laboratory tests, a medical history and examination, and a stress-EKG test. There's also a consultation with a nutritionist, a fitness assessment with an exercise physiologist, and a session with a behavioral-medicine specialist. The price for that package is $1,962. Executives can extend their stay into an "Executive Escape," which includes the comprehensive health assessment plus services at the Center for Living--perhaps sessions with a physical trainer, classes on nutrition and stress management, or counseling in diabetes control and smoking cessation. </p><p></p><center><br /><table align="CENTER" border="0"><tr><td align="TOP"><img src="quote3.gif" border="0" /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP"><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size="2" color="000088"></font></td></tr></table></center><p> </p><p>I show up on the first morning at 8:30 for blood work and a chest X-ray ("Service begins with me," reads the nametag on the attending technician), and I self-righteously bypass the promised reward--a rather modest breakfast offering of fruit and mini-muffins. Then I meet my assigned doctor, Kevin Waters, an associate in medicine for the Executive Health program. He does my comprehensive health evaluation, which he'll later review with me and summarize in writing. </p><p>Comprehensive is the appropriate term for the check-up, which lasts a full hour. Waters' gently inquisitive tone and leisurely pace through the examination are a throwback to a doctor-patient relationship that predates assembly-line health care. The conversation delves into my family history, experience with medications, allergies, and health-related habits; the examination delves into bodily systems that I don't particularly think about. Waters tells me a bit of a weight loss wouldn't be bad, reinforces the need to include flexibility and strengthening in my exercise routine, talks about the virtues of avoiding excessive carbohydrates, and advises taking a multi-vitamin and baby aspirin every day. </p><p>He also draws me an elaborate diagram charting out body biochemistry. I get lost in some of the details, but I do come away with a rough understanding of my lipids: "good cholesterol," which transports cholesterol away from the cells lining the arteries; "bad cholesterol," which gets deposited on artery walls and promotes heart disease; and triglycerides, a fatty acid circulating in the bloodstream that helps transport food immediately after eating. My "bad cholesterol" level bears watching, Waters says, and can be controlled by decreasing saturated fat and eating more starches, fruits, and vegetables. </p><p>During my time with Executive Health, I have two nutrition consultations. Nutritionist Franca Alphin seems generally pleased with my eating habits, and says soothing things about my addiction to low-fat yogurt. I had neglected to complete my "Food Record for Computer Analysis," a document meant to record everything I would eat and drink all day, including preparation method and exact quantities consumed. So Alphin draws me out on my eating habits. She advises me to consume at least two or three glasses of water daily, echoes physician Waters in suggesting a multi-vitamin and a vitamin E supplement, and tells me to increase my intake of tomato products, which lower the risk of prostate cancer. </p><p>My other eating adviser, Elisabetta Politi, was raised in Italy. She wins me over with her affection for an Old World culture that frowns on eating on the run and exercises as a matter of daily living, rather than out of self-conscious obsession. She says Americans too often eat for the wrong reasons--because they're bored, or to relieve anxiety. Variety is important, she says; you can't eat the same food over and over and feel satisfied. You also can't strive for perfection with every meal. "Life has to be enjoyed," she says. She sees aiming for a reasonable balance, rather than self-deprivation, as the route to weight control. </p><p>Wary of the consequences of my own enjoyable embrace of food, I prepare for a body-composition assessment. The hands-on assessment, as it were, comes when little clamps are applied in three places: my chest, abdomen, and thigh. That skin-folding procedure is one determination of how much of my body weight is lean mass and how much is fat mass. I'm also subjected to the less interventionist standard body-mass index, or BMI--computed by dividing my weight in kilograms by my height in meters squared. The BMI is thought to be more sophisticated than the familiar height/weight tables. It doesn't differentiate between fat and muscle, though. And since muscle mass actually weighs more than fat, an athlete can be gauged as overweight. </p><p>I figure that I'm not subject to that anomaly. My BMI comes to 23, the same figure that results from the skin-fold test. That puts me in the "desirable" range. </p><p>From there I undergo an exercise performance evaluation--that is, a treadmill exercise. The exercise-stress test is a diagnostic tool for uncovering cardiac problems; it's also a screening device in advance of an exercise program. Treadmill encounters have always struck me as nasty, brutish, and not short enough. Here, my EKG is taken at every stage--meaning whenever the grade or the speed is increased--and during recovery. My heart rate is taken every minute, and my blood pressure is taken every two or three minutes. I feel thoroughly monitored. The grade and the speed are changed according to a standard protocol, depending on whether the stress-tested person is sedentary or athletically involved. I'm also asked regularly how hard I feel I'm working, according to a scale with a range from "very, very light" to "very, very hard." </p><p>I go for thirteen minutes before feeling uncomfortably breathless. And I learn my training heart range, calculated using the maximum heart rate I attained on the exercise test and my resting heart rate. That range, in beats per minute--132 to 162 for me--doesn't register at first. But later, an exercise physiologist, Maria Nardini, puts it all in context. She explains that this isn't the endurance exercise that I had taken it to be. What's significant isn't how long I lasted on the treadmill, but how I was doing from stage to stage. She says my self-rating of workout intensity, or "rate of perceived exertion," will be a useful guide as I exercise. </p><p>The idea is to get in tune with how my body feels when it's working at various levels, to sense my level of intensity without needing to take my heart rate. My cardiovascular benefits will kick in optimally, then, with exercise in the range between "fairly light" and "hard." Below that range, I'm not getting much in the way of benefits. The same is true beyond that range: One of the drawbacks of exercising to excess is that I'm not going to be enjoying it, and so I could become an exercise avoider. </p><p>Wanting to be an exercise partaker, and just back from my lunch of soup and a hefty salad with low-calorie dressing (every Center for Living offering comes with a calorie count; I opted for my salad day over a "Sloppy Turkey Joe" day), I meet with my personal fitness trainer, Greg McElveen. As my warm-up event, I take my first-ever virtual bike ride. I find the shifting seat and the shifting scene on the monitor hard to get used to. During my ride through a small New England town, I manage to have several pedestrian and vehicle run-ins. McElveen--an avid long-distance biker--is less worried about my virtual biking ineptness than about how thoroughly lunch was digested. He is instantly attentive to my desired dividends from exercise. I mention vaguely an interest in body toning and basic strength. He probes my habits in tennis and swimming, and </p><p>seems intrigued by my impending hiking tour through England. </p><p>I've long perceived strength and flexibility conditioning as self-torture, if perhaps virtuous self-torture. The easygoing McElveen, though, is hardly a pain-through-gain drill sergeant; his message is, find something you enjoy, and you're bound to keep it going. He puts me through a repertoire including bent-over rowing, for the back and biceps; abdomen crunching, using nothing fancier than light weights held high; overhead and tricep press-downs, for the shoulder and arm; lat pulls and curls, for the biceps and the latissimus dorsi (a name that brings to mind a Renaissance painter); and bench-press incline, for the chest and arm. He invents some stretchable-cord routines to help the tennis serve, forehand, and backhand, and a bench-stepping exercise for getting me in step with the demands of hiking. And he calls me "relentless," which, of course, keeps me pumped up. </p><p>Obviously concerned to make this a routine of mine rather than a soon-to-be-forgotten exposure, McElveen largely confines his instruction to equipment carried in my own workout facility. He explains the need to raise and lower weights slowly, to breathe with each repetition, and to perform a set of exercise two or three times a week on non-consecutive days. One exercise set a week will produce 70 percent of all possible results, he says; with two sets, the figure goes to 90 percent, and with three, 97 percent. McElveen also emphasizes the virtues of stretching--which I've rarely bothered with--and runs me through stretching exercising for the upper calf, lower calf, quadriceps, hamstrings, and hips. As he notes about lower-back stretching, ten seconds counts, thirty seconds is better, and two minutes is best. </p><p>I sample the Center for Living's pool for classes in water aerobics and muscle toning. For a couple of hours, I'm playing with styrofoam "noodles" and "power buoys," an activity that's the equivalent of working out with weights on land. I find the aquatic experience surprisingly challenging: The buoyancy-based resistance in water is much greater than the gravity-based resistance on land. As I pull down on the water toys, the resistance is increasing. For that matter, keeping my balance through the exercise routine isn't easy. Yet, water pressure helps the blood pump more efficiently just as water itself keeps the exerciser cool, so I could keep on going without overheating. Also, water-based exercises can be exaggerated or reined in according to the abilities of the exerciser. I try to show my aquatic exuberance by running in place and skipping aggressively from side to side, though it all feels a bit silly--particularly since group consensus has it that our best workout is to the theme of The Andy Griffith Show. </p><p>From Andy Griffith, it's only a small step to "Mindfulness Meditation," with Mark Wolever, a clinical health psychologist who works with Executive Health. I've never before put myself in a meditative environment. Wolever tells our group of about a dozen that the idea is to get relaxed, refreshed, and energized. It's all about evoking a relaxation response. I semi-close my eyes and try to follow his guidance --which is really all about following my breath, through my chest, my belly, and my appendages. I'm supposed to be "mindful of the moment," as he puts it, and to observe the distractions that arise in thoughts, feelings, and sensations. In particular, I shouldn't be worrying about something that happened or something that's bound to happen. For the moment, the breath is supposed to anchor everything. And everything is in this moment. </p><p>I also join Wolever for an "Imagery Field Trip," a guided, sensations-rich mental journey with features that, he says, change from trip to trip. This time I find myself on a forest walk, then on a mountain path, and finally floating on a cloud; I pass a flock of sheep and wildflowers, gaze on stands of tall pines and poplars, walk by a deserted cabin, and spot a rushing stream and a still lake. I find the conjured images intersecting with some vivid mental pictures from my trip through Yosemite Park, just weeks earlier. As we return to non-imagined reality, Wolever notes the contrast between this form of relaxation response, which had me make a great escape, and mindful meditation, with its here-and-now focus. </p><p>Later, Wolever tells me that the breath is basic to relaxation strategies. It's unrealistic to think about leading a stress-free life, he points out. In fact, an optimal level of stress can charge up those busy executives or give them a needed adrenaline rush; it can be a helpful motivator and can sharpen concentration. But chronic stress is linked with heart disease, depression, and early mortality. And some of those executives don't realize that stress may be affecting them negatively, causing, for example, short tempers, poor eating habits, and reckless smoking or drinking behavior. From a physiological standpoint, when I was sitting and meditating, my heart rate was down, my blood pressure was down, and there were other metabolic shifts, all good in and of themselves. </p><p>Theoretically, as I practice this art--and it does take practice--I'll be more adept at achieving clarity of thought and calmness in the moment, and so I'll be better able to manage situations when confronted or challenged. </p><p>The ultimate calmer during my Executive Health stint is massage therapy. With Beethoven's Ode to Joy in the background, masseur Howard Anderson applies his hands in short, repetitive strokes to my neck, knees, back, and hips. He mentions different stylistic techniques; he tends to apply his massaging hands pretty deeply into the tissue, but he says he's attentive to signals that would prompt his lightening up. I like the feeling of being worked on through a not-so-soft touch. Every style of massage, he says, will increase blood circulation and the fluidness of tissue. The body nurtures itself and heals itself through blood flow, so massage can be thought of as promoting self-renewal. Tissue can get stuck like a rusty door hinge, he says, that needs to be worked on for easy movement. He says he constantly sees victims of the "work, work, work, go, go, go" style of executive living: The executive spends too much time sitting still and operating under stress, all of which causes muscles to tighten up. </p><p>A bit later, I read of a study published in The British Journal of Sports Medicine asserting that massage may not speed muscle recovery. In promoting blood flow, massage presumably speeds up the process of flushing lactate out of tired areas. The British tests showed no difference in lactate levels between a group of British boxers who had been given massages and a group of boxers who had just rested for the same time. Both groups saw their punching power fall by similar amounts. Still, the boxers who got the massages reported feeling much better than those who did not. Stressed executive or battered boxer, I could appreciate the simple therapeutic value of being touched. </p><p>Stress is an overarching theme for Executive Health--just as it is for a popular magazine like Psychology Today, whose April issue is all about stress. "We're all trained as children in the basics of reading and writing, but we're not taught about stress management," according to the article. It goes on to report that on an average workday, about a million employees are absent because of stress-related problems, costing American businesses more than $200 billion annually in absenteeism, workers' compensation claims, health-insurance costs, and lowered productivity. As Psychology Today notes, "'Desserts' spelled backward is 'Stressed.'" I can't quite figure out the significance of that wordplay, but I try not to stress about it. </p><p>I meet with Ruth Quillian, who, like Wolever, is a clinical health psychologist, for a psychological discussion. I had dutifully completed a set of mental-health surveys. On one I answered "I do not feel sad," "I am not particularly discouraged about the future," "I do not feel like a failure," and "I don't feel particularly guilty." A second form probed frequency of feelings like being "upset because of something that happened unexpectedly"; another explored relationships ("How often do your close friends and relatives make you feel loved and cared for?"). On a different survey, I struggled on a couple of true-or-false questions, like "I am sure I am being talked about" and "I do not try to cover up my poor opinion or pity of a person so that he won't know how I feel." The first seemed ambiguous, and the second was tough to unpack. </p><p> Quillian tells me that my score on a "Perceived Stress Scale" falls in the low range for people of my age and background. I also produced a low-hostility ranking and self-reported no depressive symptoms. She suggests being more attentive to social support, and talks about the tradeoffs and tensions between career-building and relationship-building. As her written comments put it, "Social support is perhaps the most important psychosocial buffer of disease of which we are currently aware. While developing a supportive and loving community around you can be quite challenging in the hectic lifestyles of this day, it is imperative for health and quality of life." Beyond its well-known links with mortality, strong social support apparently helps combat the common cold. That's something to reflect on in gearing up for next winter. </p><p>To enlarge on my social network, I visit with James Clapp, professor of medicine and director of the Executive Health program. Clapp, trained as a nephrologist (kidney specialist), has been on Duke's medical faculty since 1963. He moved to the Center for Living in 1991 as clinic director; Executive Health later became part of the Center for Living, which focuses on fitness and rehabilitation. Duke is distinctive, he says, in offering an executive health service that offers not just a freestanding clinic but the resources of a major medical center. "Nobody has a facility like this," he says. "We have a campus-like facility for executives and yet we're part of a major medical institution"--meaning if an executive visitor has a need for high-technology care, that kind of care is readily available. </p><p>Clapp says the program satisfies a need that's especially important in a period of managed health care. "It used to be that the physician knew every aspect of the patient's world, from his working habits to his family dynamics. Now, in most contexts, the patient visit is pared down to something like fifteen minutes. Most people can hardly say hello in a mere fifteen minutes, much less describe their physical state in depth." </p><p>According to Clapp, executives should view preservation of their health in the same way they view their retirement program: "Start planning early and invest all along the way." He tells me, "Many of the things that afflict people are lifestyle-related--having to do with how they eat, drink, exercise, handle stress. A heart attack doesn't begin when you have chest pain. It begins to evolve years before that." </p><p>So I leave Executive Health convinced that I'm achieving nicely, but in need of improvement. I feel a bit jarred on hearing about a Centers for Disease Control finding that half of Americans are overweight and half of the overweight group is trying to lose those extra pounds, but that they're not working out long enough or hard enough to make a difference. </p><p>But then I run across a newspaper article that makes me downright envious. It seems that medical researchers have bred a genetically modified mouse that can eat without getting fat. The researchers stripped away a gene that appears to play a role in helping mice store fat. Without the gene, the mice could eat with impunity. So much for consistent exercise, good eating habits, meditation, massage, and stress relief. How about some fat-busting genetic therapy? </p><p>Information on the Duke Center for Living--including the Executive Health and Healthy Escapes programs--is available online at ww.dukecenter.org. </p><p> </p><table width="90%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="5"><!---------------Sidebar Text-----------------><tr><td bgcolor="#000088"> <center> <table width="90%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="5"><!---------------Sidebar Color-----------------><tr><td bgcolor="#000088"> <center> </center><p> <font face="Arial" size="+1" style="font:14pt Arial" color="#FFFFFF"> </font></p><p>GETTING EXERCISED <!---Title----> <br /></p><p> </p></td></tr></table></center> <p> <font face="Arial" size="3" style="font:12pt Arial" color="#FFFFFF"> </font></p><p>Visitors to the Duke Center for Living find a serene setting on twenty-six acres in Duke Forest. It's a kind of wooded paradise for those who are dedicated to, or who are determined to be dedicated to, healthy habits. Along with a cafe serving up low-fat meals, the center offers a fitness facility complete with a wide variety of resistance and cardiovascular equipment, an indoor lap pool, indoor and outdoor tracks, a whirlpool, and saunas. </p><p>The center's staff members--doctors, nurses, physiologists, health psychologists, and trainers --work with the executive-health program and with the health-oriented retreats for corporate clients. Beyond the corporate ranks, they run programs devoted to weight loss, personal wellness (fitness, nutrition, behavior), and rehabilitation (cardiac, pulmonary, arthritis). The center schedules lectures that focus on health-related topics--"Diet and Exercise: A Balancing Act"; "Coronary Artery Disease Risk Factors"; "Vitamins and Supplements: What You Need to Know." And it serves up individual therapeutic sessions involving weight management, stress management, physical therapy, and massage therapy. </p><p>For the aquatically-minded, the center brings the exercise world to its own water world, with pool-based activities like water walking and muscle toning. Its fitness classes range from the gentle and predictable to the demanding and the exotic. Among them are low-impact aerobics, exercise-bike "spinning" (set to music that's meant to encourage happy pedaling), and badminton. There's also an "abs in action" class, which is probably lacking in a lot of ordinary student routines, plus yoga, Tai Chi (defined as "a gentle, flowing movement meditation"), QiGong ("an ancient set of energy cultivation and internal balancing exercises"), and cardio-combo aerobics, a "super-charged" class that combines "the latest moves in kick boxing and low-impact aerobics." </p><p>Kay Glisson is a registered nurse who coordinates the "Healthy Escapes" program for out-of-town visitors to the Center for Living--many of whom are repeat visitors, often coming from considerable distances. She says the center's emphasis on "ˆ la carte" options and one-on-one consultations appeals to a culture that values medical science while also valuing individual freedom of choice, goal-setting, and a healthy lifestyle. "People leave here feeling much better informed about their personal health, and much more committed to the habits they should be following." </p></td></tr><!---------------Sidebar Color-----------------></table><!---------------Sidebar Text-----------------><!------------------End Table--------------------><p><br /><img src="dkblu.gif" width="600" height="2" /><br clear="ALL" /></p><p></p><center> <a href="#pagetop"><img border="0" src="totop.gif" /><br /></a> </center><p> <!-- analytics --><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript"> <!--//--><![CDATA[// ><!-- _uacct = "UA-1422454-1";urchinTracker(); //--><!]]> </script><!-- analytics --></p> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2000-06-01T00:00:00-04:00">Thursday, June 1, 2000</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/default_images/dukmag-horizontal-placeholder.jpg" width="238" height="140" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/may-jun-2000" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">May - Jun 2000</a></li></ul></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> No <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue Thu, 01 Jun 2000 08:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18499174 at https://alumni.duke.edu Duke University Alumni Magazine https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/duke-university-alumni-magazine-111 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <a name="pagetop" id="pagetop"></a> <nobr><img src="storyhead.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /><img src="persps.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /><img src="julaug2.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /></nobr><center> <table width="600"><!------------------Begin Table--------------------><tr><td valign="TOP" width="150" align="LEFT"> <a href="maglinks.html#story5"><img src="storylink1.gif" border="0" align="LEFT" hspace="0" /></a><br /><!----------Email Feature-------------><br clear="ALL" /><p><br /><br clear="ALL" /></p><p><br /><img src="storylink6.gif" border="0" align="LEFT" hspace="0" /><br clear="ALL" /></p><form enctype="text/plain" name="mail" method="GET" action="mailto:robert.bliwise@duke.edu?subject=Magazine Web Site Article Response" id="mail"> <input type="HIDDEN" value="Article" name="Divine Article" /><!----------------Embedded Form ----------------><input type="image" src="submit.gif" border="0" alt="SUBMIT" hspace="3" height="24" width="73" /><!----------Email Feature-------------></form> </td><td valign="TOP" width="450"><font face="Arial, Helvetica"> <!----------------------Header----------------------------> </font><center><table width="90%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td valign="TOP" align="CENTER"> <b><font size="+3" face="Arial" style="font: 36pt Arial; font-weight:bold;">THE DOCTOR & THE DIVINE <!----title-----></font><br /></b></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP" align="CENTER"> <font size="+1" face="Arial, Helvetica" style="font: 14pt Arial, Helvetica; font-weight:bold;" color="#000088">RELIGION, HEALTH, AND HEALING <!---subtitle---></font><br /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP" align="CENTER"> <font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica" style="font: 12pt Arial, Helvetica;">BY KIRK KICKLIGHTER <!---byline----><br /><font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica" style="font: 12pt Arial, Helvetica;"> <!--Photography--><br /></font></font></td></tr></table></center><p> </p><table width="250" units="PIXELS" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td valign="TOP" align="CENTER"> <!--------photo-------> <img src="divine1.jpg" /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP" align="LEFT"> <font face="MSSans, Helvetica" size="-2"> Photo: Ian Southerland </font></td></tr><!--------photo-------></table><p> </p><table width="90%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td valign="TOP" align="LEFT"> <!------Intro-------> <font face="Arial, Helvetica" color="#000088"><b>"Spiritual questions are too important to life and death to ignore any longer. Medicine has come to the slow realization that we really do have to treat the whole person." </b></font> </td></tr><!------Intro-------></table></td></tr></table></center> <p> <!----------------------Header----------------------------> <font face="Arial, Helvetica"> <img src="i.gif" align="LEFT" />n matters of convenience and necessity, we tend to be accustomed to, and accepting of, the pervasive power of technology. That's certainly the case for medical care. In contemporary culture, technology is the great healer, and when it comes to medical care, our faith in technology may trump our faith in faith. </font></p><p>But thinking has shifted a bit, perhaps shifted back to earlier notions, since religious expression was long considered basic to care for the sick and dying. Duke now has an Institute on Care at the End of Life, along with a Health and Nursing Ministries program. A third program, run by the Center for the Study of Religion, Spirituality, and Health, probes whether religious faith helps us live longer, healthier lives, and explores whether faith can heal illness. Why these programs, and why now? According to Harvey Cohen, chief of geriatrics and director of Duke's Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, the answer is profoundly simple. "Spiritual questions are too important to life and death to ignore any longer. Medicine has come to the slow realization that we really do have to treat the whole person." </p><p></p><table hspace="5" vspace="5" width="25%" align="RIGHT" border="0"><tr><td align="TOP"><img src="divine2.jpg" border="0" /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP"><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size="2" color="000088"><br /> Photo: Ian Southerland </font></td></tr></table><p>Treating the whole person, then, would include religion as part of a patient treatment plan. But this is an idea that raises many questions. Can we--or should we--use religious faith to heal or even prevent illness? In the context of twenty-first-century medicine, thinking about religious faith in such a way may seem archaic, even ignorant. Many physicians who are willing to accept discussions of faith at bedside would balk at using faith for treatment and prevention. That kind of thinking is for shamans and faith healers, they argue, and should be kept far away from the fluorescent-lit linoleum of modern hospitals. But Shelly Cole would say those naysayers are wrong. </p><p>At thirty-five, Cole had suffered mental illness most of her life. She was sexually abused as a child, and growing up, one of her prayers had been, "Lord, just let me go to sleep and die." She married, then divorced an abusive man who often threatened her with a .38 revolver. Long bouts of depression prevented her from finishing a music degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1995, she attempted suicide and was hospitalized for a year. Doctors from Duke Medical Center prescribed increasing doses of antidepressant medication, but Cole made only marginal progress. </p><p>Finally, after ten months, Cole was granted a weekend pass from the hospital to attend a religious retreat with her sister. That weekend began a religious conversion that Cole says gave her insight into the meaning of her lifelong pain. She became convinced that God had a plan for her to help others and, with a newfound hope and sense of purpose, her symptoms seemed to evaporate in a short time. Not long after her conversion, doctors released her from the hospital. She stopped taking antidepressants "cold turkey" and began substituting long, meditative prayer and Scripture readings for the drugs. She experienced no withdrawal and no relapse. She joined a church and, in 1998, won its annual award for most active community volunteer. Today, Cole is convinced her chronic illness has been vanquished by faith. </p><p>Did faith heal Shelly Cole? Psychiatrist Harold Koenig says it's definitely possible. Koenig has studied patients like Cole for nearly two decades, trying to determine the impact of religious life on physical and emotional health. He recently published his findings in the book The Healing Power of Faith: Science Explores Medicine's Last Great Frontier (Simon & Schuster, 1999). </p><p>Koenig came to Duke in 1986 after training in family medicine at the University of Missouri. While at Missouri, he frequently encountered patients whose strong religious faith seemed to affect them in surprising ways: An alcoholic he thought was beyond salvaging relied on faith to recover; an elderly couple enmeshed in marital difficulties found spiritual joy and closeness despite their problems. His conversations with such patients led him to renew his own commitment to God in his thirties. "I became more and more religious as I was listening to what people were saying. It made me think, 'This is something real.' " </p><p></p><center><br /><table align="CENTER" border="0"><tr><td align="TOP"><img src="dquote1.gif" border="0" /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP"><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size="2" color="000088"></font></td></tr></table></center><p> </p><p>As a medical researcher, he wanted to explain the phenomenon in rigorous scientific terms. That quest became what he now considers his life's work. But well into the mid-1980s, there was still a high wall between science and religion, and Koenig says he was labeled as "something of a freak" for his research. Psychiatry in particular remained heavily influenced by Freud's view that religion was a crutch for people who couldn't deal with the reality of the world; or as psychologist Albert Ellis put it, "religious belief is akin to an emotional disturbance...a disease infested with 'shoulds' and 'oughts' and admonitions of guilt." Some colleagues told Koenig he was committing professional suicide. He saw himself merely asking simple, practical questions. </p><p>"I just wanted to bring to light what I thought was a truth," says Koenig. "How could you be a family doctor and not know what gave a patient's life meaning and purpose?" </p><p>"In those days, residents and med students were taught that it was unethical to discuss religion with patients," says David Larson, president of the National Institute for Healthcare Research, a nonprofit group dedicated to investigating the religion-health connection. "There is still some nervousness even now, so this field needed a solid research. Harold has really set the standard in terms of quality and focus." </p><p>Other prominent physician-researchers have studied spirituality's effect on health, including Herbert Benson of Harvard's Mind-Body Medical Institute and Larry Dossey, the author of Healing Words, a book on the power of prayer. Benson focuses on the body's physiological response to meditation and spiritual calm. Dossey invokes both Western and Eastern religion in his survey of prayer's role in healing. But under Koenig's direction, the Duke Center for the Study of Religion, Spirituality, and Health became the first to focus on the impact of traditional religious faith and practice. </p><p>In the last fifteen years, Koenig has led more than twenty-five research projects and published scores of articles on the effects of religious life on health. During that time, numerous other investigators have hopped on the holy bandwagon. Only 7 percent of nearly 300 studies in the past fifteen years suggest evidence that religious practices harm health, mostly in cases where "faith-healing" congregations resist medical care. More than 75 percent of the mounting body of research suggests that religion positively influences health. According to these groundbreaking findings, people of faith--those who regularly attend church services, pray, and read scripture--are: </p><ul><p></p><li> More likely to have lower blood pressure and stronger immune systems; <p></p></li><li> Hospitalized much less often than non-religious people; <p></p></li><li> Less likely to suffer depression from stressful life events, and if they do, are more likely to recover; <p></p></li><li> More likely to live longer and be physically healthier into later life, in part because religious people tend to avoid unhealthy habits like alcohol and drug abuse or risky sexual behavior. </li></ul><p>Faith also seems to protect the elderly from cardiovascular disease and cancer. In terms of survival and longevity, Koenig says, "Religion may be as significant as not smoking." </p><p></p><center><br /><table align="CENTER" border="0"><tr><td align="TOP"><img src="dquote2.gif" border="0" /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP"><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size="2" color="000088"></font></td></tr></table></center><p> </p><p> </p><p>Though the findings are impressive, critics say it is still too early to conclude that faith is a medical elixir. "These types of studies do not demonstrate an absolute causal relationship," says Dan Blazer, dean of medical education at Duke. "They really just give us correlations that provide good leads." </p><p>Skeptics argue that faith-health research studies are littered with too many "confounds," such factors as age, sex, socioeconomic status, education, and genetic differences that are never completely controlled for, despite the best experimental design. Keith Meador admires Koenig as a colleague, but criticizes his research for ignoring subtle questions of context. "Take, for example, the form question: 'Is religion important to you?' " says Meador, a psychiatry professor in the medical school and a professor of pastoral theology and medicine at the Duke Divinity School. "When a person in a cross-sectional survey says, 'Yes, religion is important to me,' how do you interpret that?" Meador proposes that such answers are meaningless without knowledge of a subject's history and environmental context. "Research is interpretation-laden. That's always true, but it becomes even more important when you start to look at issues like religion." </p><p>Koenig says such concerns are absolutely valid, and he takes them seriously. "I hope my own faith, if anything, spurs me to be as scrupulous and rigorous as possible." His research team recently completed a systematic review of more than 1,100 studies conducted by researchers at different institutions on varied populations. "The vast majority of these studies show a relationship between greater religious involvement and better health," notes Koenig. "Many are not perfect because of the difficulty of studying this topic...[but] there are relatively few showing no relationship, and virtually no studies showing a significant negative relationship between religion and health." </p><p>The notion that religious people might live healthier or longer lives begs the question: What ingredients of religious faith are necessary to provide such benefits? One answer is that truly religious people are more likely to avoid such obvious health risks as drug abuse or promiscuous sexual behavior, but research also indicates that sincerely religious people tend to view events in their lives as part of a pattern--not as accidents. As a result, they are more likely to imbue events with meaning. They are also more likely to see God as benevolent, as a being who cares what happens to them, even if bad things happen to good people all the time. Israeli psychiatrist Aaron Antonovsky, a prominent researcher into the effects of "meaning-making" on health, says such a mental template applied to everyday life results in a protective "sense of coherence" for believers, a belief that life has reason and purpose to it. </p><p>Others suspect that the benefits of religion largely boil down to friendships and social support, another factor that has been shown to improve mental and physical health. But as Koenig notes in his recent book, the research suggests that even when comparing religious churchgoers to people who gather for secular reasons, like weekly support groups or Monday Night Football, religious groups are healthier. Koenig also believes there is a crucial difference in the type of social support among religious groups. "When it's good, it's a social support that is sustained, and not 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours,' the way many social encounters are in secular life," he says. "It's a little closer to an unconditional love--not expecting something in return." </p><p>One thing seems certain: Faith must be real to have an impact (again, a tricky concept to measure). Although more than 95 percent of Americans believe in God, according to a 1996 Gallup poll, research indicates that merely paying intellectual lip service to God is not enough to promote health. Faith must be relevant to daily life and affect subsequent behavior. Thus, Koenig says, curling up on the couch to watch Touched by an Angel won't help a person live longer, nor will simply attending church or synagogue. "Going to church doesn't do anything. Religion only makes a difference in your life if it really makes a difference." </p><p>He distinguishes between intrinsic and extrinsic believers and says evidence indicates intrinsics experience the strongest health benefits. Extrinsics, he says, use religion to obtain non-spiritual goals, such as finding friends and achieving social status or power. Like Dana Carvey's Church Lady character on Saturday Night Live, they often slip into legalism and pass judgment on themselves and others. Intrinsics, on the other hand, see faith as the principal motivating force in their lives, either consciously or unconsciously, affecting everyday behavior and decisions. </p><p>Does it make a difference what religion the intrinsic believer practices? "The differences between a devout Jew or Christian or Muslim are very, very slight," says Koenig. "The key is to be committed to God and to community." </p><p>Despite the mounting evidence for good health, Koenig says he understands that many Americans are turned off, even wounded, by formal religious experience, and for good reason. Some have experienced negative relationships with ministers, priests, or rabbis. Others see church social circles as cliques that practice exclusion. Religious groups can seem intolerant or insensitive to those who are "different." Every day, believers fall short of spiritual ideals and hypocrisy rears its double-talking head. But Koenig says those shortcomings don't diminish the essence of what faith really means. "It's hard for the secular and the religious to coexist in the same mind. Religious faith appears to go completely counter to evolution. There is no competition to survive. You're actually seeking to love your enemy. Maybe we want that promotion to regional manager, but do we also want to love the other person who's vying for the same position? It's hard to do." </p><p>Koenig says the key to faith's influence on health may involve the ultimate paradox, found in many prominent religions, that the "worldly self must be extinguished," that one must "lose one's life in order to find it." "It's actually a very clever way to be selfish," he says. "We still don't know how that kind of 'suffering' on our part helps us, but it seems it could be true." </p><p>So should we become more religious in order to live longer, healthier lives? Dean of the Chapel William Willimon says emphatically, "No. It doesn't work that way." He sees Koenig's research findings more as a "gracious byproduct" of faith and worship for its own sake. </p><p>"It seems to me that we worship God because God is God and we are not, or because God loves us and we love God," says Willimon. "We don't worship God in order to get more money or a lower heart rate. The main event is God. If that leads to better physical health, fine, but that's not the goal. Unfortunately, we Americans are such utilitarians, judging all people and experience on the basis of 'what will this do for me?' " </p><p>Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics, agrees with Willimon. "Such a functional view of religion poisons and negates the whole purpose of religion until it no longer matters whether what you believe in is true or false." </p><p>For his part, Koenig argues that it's not his goal for atheists and agnostics to adopt faith to achieve better physical and mental health, nor would it work. "That would be an 'extrinsic' use of religion--religion as a means to another end, rather than as an end in itself. Such a manipulation of faith has actually been correlated with worse health and greater unhappiness." </p><p> </p><p>Beyond the question of faith leading to longer, healthier lives are issues of the impact of religion during the final days. The Institute on Care at the End of Life will strive to improve research, education, and practice for those near death, an effort made possible through a $13.5-million gift arranged by hospice pioneer Hugh Westbrook M.Div.'70. An ordained United Methodist minister, Westbrook specialized in ethics and pastoral care while a student at Duke. His interests led him to focus on hospice care as a chaplain in training at Duke Medical Center, where he was assigned to terminally ill cancer patients. "What I learned through that experience certainly stuck with me to this day," he says. </p><p>After leaving Duke, Westbrook developed and taught a course on death and dying at a community college in Florida. That course paved the way for the opening of his first hospice in southern Florida in 1976. In 1978 he co-founded the VITAS Healthcare Corporation, which now provides hospice care to more than 32,000 patients and bereavement services to more than 90,000 people annually across the country. </p><p>"If you are terminally ill, dealing with a life-threatening illness, the health-care system is oriented toward a cure--and it should be," he says. "But there are times when medical science can't do anything to prolong life, when it comes time to address quality-of-life issues like controlling pain and living out final days with as much dignity and comfort as possible." </p><p>The Duke institute will be the first of its kind in the nation, "which is unusual, since people have been dying for a pretty long time," says Westbrook. "That says a lot about the status of end-of-life care. It is something that happens every day, and we avoid talking about it every day." He says he hopes Duke's effort will inspire the creation of similar programs in other locations, especially as society deals with an aging baby-boom population and the increasing need for hospice care. </p><p>Psychiatrist and professor Keith Meador is director of the institute. "We want to reshape the understanding of care for people who are dying," says Meador. "From a religious perspective, it's nothing new--tending to the sick and dying is as old as the Judeo-Christian tradition itself--but culturally I think we've been afraid to see end-of-life care as being integral to living well. Part of the problem is our denial of death." </p><p>Meador, who holds degrees in theology, public health, and medicine, says he believes most physicians are taught to think of death as a failure of medical care. "How many of us want to deal with something perceived as failure? Obviously many practitioners will distance themselves from a dying person." Meador expects the institute to help medical caregivers develop new models for thinking about dying and frameworks that combine theology and medicine, and to help doctors address spiritual issues with more candor and respect. </p><p>"Dying demands that people examine religious and existential dimensions of their life," says Divinity School dean L. Gregory Jones M.Div. '85, Ph.D. '88, whose calling to ministry was solidified after his father, former Divinity dean Jameson Jones, died of a heart attack. "The institute is a way for the Divinity School to reclaim important connections between health care and the church. We want to help doctors and clergy provide a third alternative to the dying, one beyond aggressive intervention or physician-assisted suicide." </p><p>James Tulsky, who directs the Program on the Medical Encounter and Palliative Care at the Durham VA Medical Center, concurs with Meador and Jones that spiritual issues are not emphasized nearly enough in end-of-life health-care settings. "Our research with patients about the attributes of a good death has taught us that spiritual completion ranks second only to pain control on their list of priorities." Medical researchers in the institute will also focus on developing new pain medications and pain therapies. </p><p>In the public-policy realm, the institute will pair up with one or more historically black colleges to address issues of hospice care in African-American communities, traditionally neglected by the hospice industry. Researchers and caregivers will also establish a cooperative network with the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work, the department of palliative care and policy at King's College-University of London, and St. Christopher's Hospice of London, where the modern-day hospice movement began. The institute celebrated its official coming-out this March by bringing international experts to Duke for the symposium "Opening Doors: Access to Care at the End of Life." </p><p>Even as the new institute is being launched, the Divinity School and the School of Nursing have joined together to create a new parish nursing track called the Health and Nursing Ministries program. Funded by a grant from The Duke Endowment, the program will accept its first class this fall. Nursing school dean Mary Champagne says it will enable nursing students to combine master's-level work in theology with advanced nursing practices. "Nurses always have the desire to reach people," says Champagne. "I believe we've created an innovative way to bring care to the community. And nurses will expect to learn a great deal from congregations as well." </p><p>The tradition of parish nursing has been around in some form since at least the second century in Europe, when the Catholic Church saw organized public care of the sick as an integral part of bearing witness to the Christian gospel. In the Middle Ages, several monastic traditions took up care of the sick as a direct way to do "God's work," while at the beginning of the twentieth century in the United States, many public-health nursing societies held church affiliations. </p><p>Besides the Institute on Care at the End of Life, Meador directs the Health and Nursing Ministries. He says the program is a perfect fit for nursing education because nursing has historically been the one health-care discipline that focused consistently on being with the chronically ill and suffering. "By its very nature," says Meador, "nursing possesses the moral resources to resist the technical, consumerist, and impersonal pitfalls that are excesses of contemporary medicine." Associate director Ruth Ouimette, a clinical professor at the nursing school, recognizes the idea's potential. "The opportunity to teach nursing students and divinity students together is going to make a big difference." </p><p>A big difference indeed. Programs like the Institute on Care at the End of Life and the Health and Nursing Ministries are important first steps in mending the once-antagonistic relationship between health care and religion. As their ideas become more accepted, physicians, nurses, and patients may feel more comfortable discussing issues of faith as they relate to dealing with chronic and terminal illness --and, perhaps, as they relate to dealing with life-long questions of health and health care. </p><p>Toward this end, regardless of study results or the establishment's acceptance of his theories, Harold Koenig offers this advice to the non-religious: "Keep an open mind to the existence of God in your own life and in society. Perhaps discuss God and faith with a religious person you respect, someone who will listen and accept you without being judgmental. And bear in mind that cutting-edge scientific disciplines such as molecular biology and astrophysics point increasingly toward order rather than sterile chaos in the universe." <!--------------Font Set -------------------> <font size="2" face="Times" style="font:12pt Times; font-weight:light;"> <!--------------authornote-----------------> <hr /><i> Kicklighter '86 is a freelance writer in Carrboro, North Carolina. </i> <!--------------authornote-----------------> </font><font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica" style="font:12pt Arial, Helvetica; font-weight:light;"> <!--------------Font Set -------------------> </font></p><p> <font size="-1"> The photographs of Duke Chapel's stained-glass windows are from the collection taken by Ian Sutherland as a 1985 archival project sponsored by Friends of the Chapel. (See "Gazette," May-June 1996 issue, or <a href="http://www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/alumni/dm4/dm4.html">www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/alumni/dm4/dm4.html</a>.) </font> </p><p> </p><table width="90%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="5"><!---------------Sidebar Text-----------------><tr><td bgcolor="#000088"> <center> <table width="90%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="5"><!---------------Sidebar Color-----------------><tr><td bgcolor="#000088"> <center> </center><p> <font face="Arial" size="+1" style="font:14pt Arial" color="#FFFFFF"> DEALING WITH DYING <!---Title----> </font><br /></p><p> </p><center><table width="200" units="PIXELS" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td valign="TOP"> <!--------photo-------> <img src="divineside.jpg" /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP" align="LEFT"> <font face="MSSans, Helvetica" size="-2" color="#FFFFFF"> <!---Caption----> </font> </td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP" align="LEFT"> <font face="MSSans, Helvetica" size="-2" color="#C5C5C5"> Photo: Ian Southerland</font> </td></tr><!--------photo-------></table></center> </td></tr></table></center> <p> <font face="Arial" size="3" style="font:12pt Arial" color="#FFFFFF"> </font></p><p> </p><p>Future historians will judge the moral worth of the baby-boom generation by the way it cares for the sick, frail, and elderly, said Ira R. Byock, M.D., a panelist at the inaugural symposium of Duke's new Institute on Care at the End of Life. "Opening Doors: Access to Care at the End of Life" attracted more than 300 participants from around the country in March. </p><p> Unless this challenge is addressed, Byock foresees "a negative change in social and cultural history that will be as profound as the Dark Ages. We could potentially be looking at human warehouses that would make the nursing homes of today look like luxury hotels." </p><p>Medical ethicist William F. May said the rise in medical costs--which, since World War II, have risen from 4.5 percent to 14 percent of the GNP--and the current shift to managed care means that doctors spend less time with patients, as little as eight minutes in some settings. May called the result the "Disneyfication" of medicine. "Walt Disney's solution to the chronic costs of his theme parks--expensive real estate, equipment, personnel--was to process people fast. The same thing is happening in our health-care system." Instead, May said, caregivers should strive to "honor each person's dying and accompany it." </p><p>May listed three classical virtues requisite for that task: prudence, fidelity, and public spiritedness. Prudence, which he described as discernment or attentiveness, requires that both the patient and caregivers "take in what's out there to offer a fitting and appropriate response." Fidelity entails caregiving that is disinterested, a concept at odds with the marketplace. The caregivers' interests "should be trumped by the interests of the patient," as he put it. "Doctors have tended to think of themselves as Lone Rangers appearing out of nowhere and disappearing into nowhere in offering their solitary services to help the patient." Public spiritedness calls for "health-care practitioners who act in concert with others for the public good." </p><p>The medical establishment itself is a major barrier to improving end-of-life care, said Kathleen M. Foley. An attending neurologist in the Pain and Palliative Care Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, Foley is also director of the Project on Death in America. "Physicians and all health-care professionals lack knowledge in the care of the dying," she told the "Opening Doors" audience. "We have very good data to suggest that they inadequately assess and treat pain, inadequately assess and treat psychological distress, and have little understanding of the spiritual needs of patients." </p><p>"Unless we can offer some sort of care and support for the family, as patients become sicker and sicker, people and society are looking at ending life abruptly," said Nessa Coyle, a nurse who directs the Supportive Care Program, Pain and Palliative Care Services, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering. The care of very sick individuals is primarily provided by one or two people, usually women, she said. "What could be a time of growth and fulfillment and putting a life into perspective [instead] can become a very destructive period. Family members are exhausted because of lack of support, lack of understanding of how to care for symptoms, lack of attention to details to the process of dying." </p><p>Panelist Arthur Frank, a medical sociologist and cancer survivor, said that managed care's shift of "more and more responsibility for the ill person onto the family, and utterly euphemistically onto the community," comes at an incredible cost. "Now that society is organized into two-income families and nuclear-family housing, to offload the care of the sick and elderly onto families is simply cruel." </p><p>Research data reveal that a significant group of people lack access to hospice and palliative care, including minority groups, the elderly, those with less education, and those who are cognitively impaired. Panelist Judi Lund Person, president and chief executive officer of Hospice for the Carolinas, said that only 20 percent of the U.S. population gets hospice care. Since death "happens to 100 percent of us," she said, "one of our challenges is to allow more people access." </p><p>In the discussion, Duke's Karla Holloway, dean of the humanities and social sciences and professor of English and African-American literature, said the structure of the interdisciplinary institute illustrates a comprehensive approach to "complex public-policy and cultural issues, as well as the medical and ethical issues." </p><p>The Institute on Care at the End of Life, based at the Divinity School, includes representatives of Duke's schools of medicine, nursing, and divinity, as well as the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina Central University in Durham. </p><table width="100%"><tr><td valign="TOP" align="RIGHT"> <font face="Times" size="3" style="font:12pt Times" color="#FFFFFF"> <i>--Elisabeth Stagg</i> </font></td></tr></table><br clear="ALL" /><center> <i>Stagg is associate director of communications for Duke's Divinity School.</i> </center><p> </p></td></tr><!---------------Sidebar Color-----------------></table><!---------------Sidebar Text-----------------><!------------------End Table--------------------><p><br /><img src="dkblu.gif" width="600" height="2" /><br clear="ALL" /></p><p></p><center> <a href="#pagetop"><img border="0" src="totop.gif" /><br /></a> </center><p> <!-- analytics --><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript"> <!--//--><![CDATA[// ><!-- _uacct = "UA-1422454-1";urchinTracker(); //--><!]]> </script><!-- analytics --></p> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2000-06-01T00:00:00-04:00">Thursday, June 1, 2000</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/default_images/dukmag-horizontal-placeholder.jpg" width="238" height="140" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/may-jun-2000" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">May - Jun 2000</a></li></ul></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> No <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue Thu, 01 Jun 2000 08:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18499173 at https://alumni.duke.edu Duke University Alumni Magazine https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/duke-university-alumni-magazine-110 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <a name="pagetop" id="pagetop"></a> <nobr><img src="storyhead.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /><img src="melink.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /><img src="marapr2.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /></nobr><center> <table width="600"><!------------------Begin Table--------------------><tr><td valign="TOP" width="250"> </td><td valign="TOP" width="450"><font face="Arial, Helvetica"> <a name="story1" id="story1"></a> <b>REMEMBERING THE SILENT VIGIL</b> - <i>Related Multimedia</i><br /></font><p> </p><ul><center><img src="realmedia.gif" /><font size="2">[<b>Real Video</b> 33.6 or Better]</font></center> <p></p><li><a href="http://www.kitchenmedia.com/dukescripts/media/realvideo.cgi">News Reel Video of the 1963 March on Washington</a> <center><img src="realmedia.gif" /><font size="2">[<b>Real Audio</b> 28.8 or Better]</font></center> <p></p></li><li><a href="http://www.kitchenmedia.com/dukescripts/media/realaudio.cgi">John Strange Addresses Students Before March</a> <p></p></li><li><a href="http://www.kitchenmedia.com/dukescripts/media/realaudio1.cgi">Joan Baez Answers Student Questions</a> <p></p></li><li><a href="http://www.kitchenmedia.com/dukescripts/media/realaudio2.cgi">Samuel Dubois Cook Speaks on the Death of Dr. King</a> <p></p></li><li><a href="http://www.kitchenmedia.com/dukescripts/media/realaudio3.cgi">The Administration Responds, Tisdale Speaks to Demands</a> </li></ul><a href="vigil.html"><img src="returnlink.gif" border="0" hspace="0" /></a> <p> </p><p><br /></p><center><a href="help.html#realmedia">Need Help With Real Media?</a></center> <p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p></td></tr><!------------------End Table--------------------></table><p><br /><img src="dkblu.gif" width="600" height="2" /><br clear="ALL" /></p><p></p><center> <a href="maglinks.html#pagetop"><img border="0" src="totop.gif" /><br /></a> </center><p> </p></center> <!-- analytics --><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript"> <!--//--><![CDATA[// ><!-- _uacct = "UA-1422454-1";urchinTracker(); //--><!]]> </script><!-- analytics --> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2000-06-01T00:00:00-04:00">Thursday, June 1, 2000</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/default_images/dukmag-horizontal-placeholder.jpg" width="238" height="140" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/may-jun-2000" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">May - Jun 2000</a></li></ul></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> No <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue Thu, 01 Jun 2000 08:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18499172 at https://alumni.duke.edu Duke University Alumni Magazine https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/duke-university-alumni-magazine-109 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <a name="pagetop" id="pagetop"></a> <nobr><img src="storyhead.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /><img src="gallery.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /><img src="mayjun2.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /></nobr><center> <table width="600"><!------------------Begin Table--------------------><tr><td valign="TOP" width="250"> </td><td valign="TOP" width="450"> <p><br /></p><p><br /><font face="Arial, Helvetica"> </font></p><center><h3>Highlights of Reunion 2000</h3></center> <br /> A weekend packed with special events, class gatherings, and general activities. <p> </p><center> <!-----photo-----> <table width="40%"><tr><td valign="TOP"> <img src="register1.jpg" /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP"><font color="000088" face="Arial,Helvetica" size="-2"> Party poppers: confetti fireworks reigned at Saturday's Big Dance after the rain nixed outdoor pyrotechnics <br />Photo: Chris Hildreth </font></td></tr></table></center><p><br clear="ALL" /><!-----photo-----><!-----photo-----></p><table width="40%"><tr><td valign="TOP"> <img src="register2.jpg" /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP"><font color="000088" face="Arial,Helvetica" size="-2"> Best foot forward: Duke Dance was showcased as part of "Art Sparks" programming on Friday <br />Photo: Chris Hildreth</font></td></tr></table><p><br clear="ALL" /><!-----photo-----><!-----photo-----></p><table width="40%"><tr><td valign="TOP"> <img src="register3.jpg" /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP"><font color="000088" face="Arial,Helvetica" size="-2"> Class acts: a perfect mix of mingling, music, and memories <br />Photo: Les Todd</font></td></tr></table><p><br clear="ALL" /><!-----photo-----><!-----photo-----></p><table width="40%"><tr><td valign="TOP"> <img src="register4.jpg" /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP"><font color="000088" face="Arial,Helvetica" size="-2"> Photo: Les Todd</font></td></tr></table><p><br clear="ALL" /><!-----photo-----><!-----photo-----></p><table width="40%"><tr><td valign="TOP"> <img src="register5.jpg" /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP"><font color="000088" face="Arial,Helvetica" size="-2"> Photo: Les Todd</font></td></tr></table><p><br clear="ALL" /><!-----photo-----><!-----photo-----></p><table width="40%"><tr><td valign="TOP"> <img src="register6.jpg" /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP"><font color="000088" face="Arial,Helvetica" size="-2"> Fete aclompli: an evening for friends, fancy footwork, photos, and Blue Devil revelry <br />Photo: Chris Hildreth</font></td></tr></table><p><br clear="ALL" /><!-----photo-----><!-----photo-----></p><table width="40%"><tr><td valign="TOP"> <img src="register7.jpg" /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP"><font color="000088" face="Arial,Helvetica" size="-2"> Photo: Les Todd</font></td></tr></table><p><br clear="ALL" /><!-----photo-----><!-----photo-----></p><table width="40%"><tr><td valign="TOP"> <img src="register8.jpg" /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP"><font color="000088" face="Arial,Helvetica" size="-2"> Photos: Les Todd (L) Chris Hildreth (R)</font></td></tr></table><p><br clear="ALL" /><!-----photo-----></p></td></tr><!------------------End Table--------------------></table><p><br /><img src="dkblu.gif" width="600" height="2" /><br clear="ALL" /></p><p></p><center> <a href="gallery.html#pagetop"><img border="0" src="totop.gif" /><br /></a> </center><p> </p></center> <!-- analytics --><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript"> <!--//--><![CDATA[// ><!-- _uacct = "UA-1422454-1";urchinTracker(); //--><!]]> </script><!-- analytics --> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2000-06-01T00:00:00-04:00">Thursday, June 1, 2000</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/default_images/dukmag-horizontal-placeholder.jpg" width="238" height="140" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/may-jun-2000" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">May - Jun 2000</a></li></ul></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> No <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue Thu, 01 Jun 2000 08:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18499171 at https://alumni.duke.edu Duke University Alumni Magazine https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/duke-university-alumni-magazine-108 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <a name="pagetop" id="pagetop"></a> <img src="mayjun.gif" alt="Departments" /><center> <table width="600"><!------------------Begin Table--------------------><tr><td valign="TOP" width="250"> </td><td valign="TOP" width="450"><font face="Arial, Helvetica"> <img src="depts.gif" alt="Departments" /></font><p> </p><table width="450"><tr><td valign="TOP" width="25"> <a href="gargoyle.html" onmouseover="img_act('menu0')" onmouseout="img_inact('menu0')"><img align="LEFT" name="menu0" src="arrow.gif" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0" id="menu0" /></a> </td><td valign="TOP" width="425"> <!------Story Begin--------> <a href="gargoyle.html" onmouseover="img_act('menu0')" onmouseout="img_inact('menu0')"><b>UNDER THE GARGOYLE</b></a><br /> Presidential musings on academic integrity </td></tr><!------Story End--------></table><p> </p><table width="450"><tr><td valign="TOP" width="25"> <a href="register.html" onmouseover="img_act('menu1')" onmouseout="img_inact('menu1')"><img align="LEFT" name="menu1" src="arrow.gif" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0" id="menu1" /></a> </td><td valign="TOP" width="425"> <!------Story Begin--------> <a href="register.html" onmouseover="img_act('menu1')" onmouseout="img_inact('menu1')"><b>REGISTER</b></a><br /> News of the Duke Alumni Association, mini-profiles, class notes, <a href="gallery.html">a reunion portfolio</a> </td></tr><!------Story End--------></table><p> </p><table width="450"><tr><td valign="TOP" width="25"> <a href="gazette.html" onmouseover="img_act('menu2')" onmouseout="img_inact('menu2')"><img align="LEFT" name="menu2" src="arrow.gif" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0" id="menu2" /></a> </td><td valign="TOP" width="425"> <!------Story Begin--------> <a href="gazette.html" onmouseover="img_act('menu2')" onmouseout="img_inact('menu2')"><b>GAZETTE</b></a><br /> A "kids-only" building, a West-Edens linking, a biological merging </td></tr><!------Story End--------></table><p> </p><table width="450"><tr><td valign="TOP" width="25"> <a href="books.html" onmouseover="img_act('menu3')" onmouseout="img_inact('menu3')"><img align="LEFT" name="menu3" src="arrow.gif" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0" id="menu3" /></a> </td><td valign="TOP" width="425"> <!------Story Begin--------> <a href="books.html" onmouseover="img_act('menu3')" onmouseout="img_inact('menu3')"><b>BOOKS</b></a><br /> The lessons of Louis Armstrong, plus books in brief </td></tr><!------Story End--------></table><p> </p><table width="450"><tr><td valign="TOP" width="25"> <a href="quotes.html" onmouseover="img_act('menu4')" onmouseout="img_inact('menu4')"><img align="LEFT" name="menu4" src="arrow.gif" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0" id="menu4" /></a> </td><td valign="TOP" width="425"> <!------Story Begin--------> <a href="quotes.html" onmouseover="img_act('menu4')" onmouseout="img_inact('menu4')"><b>QUAD QUOTES</b></a><br /> Seniors on taking stock and resuming a reading habit, an expert on the Gonzalez case and legal precedents </td></tr><!------Story End--------></table><p> </p><p> </p></td></tr><!------------------End Table--------------------></table><p><br /><img src="dkblu.gif" width="600" height="2" /><br clear="ALL" /></p><p></p><center> <a href="departments.html#pagetop"><img border="0" src="totop.gif" /><br /></a> </center><p> </p></center> <!-- analytics --><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript"> <!--//--><![CDATA[// ><!-- _uacct = "UA-1422454-1";urchinTracker(); //--><!]]> </script><!-- analytics --> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2000-06-01T00:00:00-04:00">Thursday, June 1, 2000</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/default_images/dukmag-horizontal-placeholder.jpg" width="238" height="140" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/may-jun-2000" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">May - Jun 2000</a></li></ul></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> No <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue Thu, 01 Jun 2000 08:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18499170 at https://alumni.duke.edu Duke University Alumni Magazine https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/duke-university-alumni-magazine-107 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <a name="pagetop" id="pagetop"></a> <nobr><img src="storyhead.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /><img src="persps.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /><img src="mayjun2.gif" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /></nobr><center> <table width="600"><!------------------Begin Table--------------------><tr><td valign="TOP" width="150" align="LEFT"> <a href="maglinks.html#story3"><img src="storylink1.gif" border="0" align="LEFT" hspace="0" /></a><br /><!----------Email Feature-------------><br clear="ALL" /><p><br /><br clear="ALL" /></p><p><br /><img src="storylink6.gif" border="0" align="LEFT" hspace="0" /><br clear="ALL" /></p><form enctype="text/plain" name="mail" method="GET" action="mailto:robert.bliwise@duke.edu?subject=Digital Divide Magazine Web Site Article Response" id="mail"> <input type="HIDDEN" value="Article" name="Article" /><!----------------Embedded Form ----------------><input type="image" src="submit.gif" border="0" alt="SUBMIT" hspace="3" height="24" width="73" /><!----------Email Feature-------------></form> </td><td valign="TOP" width="450"><font face="Arial, Helvetica"> <!----------------------Header----------------------------> </font><center><table width="90%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td valign="TOP" align="CENTER"> <b><font size="+3" face="Arial" style="font: 36pt Arial; font-weight:bold;">CROSSING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE <!----title-----></font><br /></b></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP" align="CENTER"> <font size="+1" face="Arial, Helvetica" style="font: 14pt Arial, Helvetica; font-weight:bold;" color="#808030">ARE WOMEN BEING PASSED ON THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY? <!---subtitle---></font><br /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP" align="CENTER"> <font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica" style="font: 12pt Arial, Helvetica;">BY SARAH HARDESTY BRAY <!---byline----><br /><font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica" style="font: 12pt Arial, Helvetica;"> <!--Photography--><br /></font></font></td></tr></table></center><p> </p><table width="250" units="PIXELS" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td valign="TOP" align="CENTER"> <!--------photo-------> <img src="digital1.jpg" /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP" align="LEFT"> <font face="MSSans, Helvetica" size="-2"> Bridge-building: Men and women alike, students in Duke professor Owen Astrachan's CPS 100 class represent the computer scientists of tomorrow <br />corbis image / photos by chris hildreth </font></td></tr><!--------photo-------></table><p> </p><table width="90%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td valign="TOP" align="LEFT"> <!------Intro-------> <font face="Arial, Helvetica" color="#808030"><b>Some of the biggest consumers of technology aren't flooding the executive ranks of high-tech business. Women aren't designing many of the new high-tech products and, most important, they aren't among those deciding critical technology policy issues. </b></font> </td></tr><!------Intro-------></table></td></tr></table></center> <p> <!----------------------Header----------------------------> <font face="Arial, Helvetica"> <img src="s.gif" align="LEFT" />Senior representatives of several leading international technology organizations, including America Online, AT&T;, and MCI WorldCom, are assembled around a conference table in an office in Washington, D.C. The office is that of Kimberly Jenkins '76, M.Ed. '77, Ph.D. '80, president of the Internet Policy Institute, and she is leading the group in developing a three-day "Internet Summit" to educate politicians, people in business, and the public about the most important policy issues that will surround the Internet. </font></p><p>The IPI is a group of top thinkers in politics, industry, and academe that is studying the global development of the Internet. The nonprofit think tank employs experts and scholars to research subjects ranging from the Internet's role in privacy to its impact on taxation and health care. The IPI's board of directors is a Who's Who of the information-technology world, and includes Internet creator Vinton G. Cerf and former National Science Foundation director Erich Bloch, among many others. "Net Heavyweights Form Think Tank," pronounced USA Today when the institute opened its doors in the fall of 1999. The technologists gathered in Jenkins' office are members of an advisory group that is helping the IPI prepare for the summit--individuals recruited for the project from an unusually broad cross-section of the high-tech industry. </p><p>Many of the people at this meeting are women. While that would not be surprising in most fields these days, it is significant for such a tech-heavy gathering. When it comes to computer science, society has been caught in the midst of a troubling, persistent gender gap. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percentage of technical jobs held by women hangs at a relatively static 28 percent, even as the number of women in the workforce approaches 50 percent. And these numbers are reflected in Duke's computer science department. </p><p>"The real problem is the trend over the last twenty years," says Melinda French Gates '86, M.B.A. '87. "If you went back several decades and looked at the statistics as to how few women graduated in the medical and legal fields, you would have seen the same situation. Today, however, they have caught up so much that the number of women is almost equal to the number of men. But it's not at all the same in the computer sciences. You would hope that the gap would be narrowing--but it's not." </p><p>Although women are among the biggest consumers of technology, they aren't flooding the executive ranks of high-tech business. They aren't designing many of the new high-tech products saturating the market. Perhaps most important, they usually aren't among those deciding critical technology policy issues--issues that affect their families' lives every day, and that will spread deeper into society as time goes on. In fact, a recent report from the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, "Tech Savvy: Educating Girls in the New Computer Age," suggests that gender equality in the information age depends upon girls being taught about and exposed to computers--education that is not happening now. </p><p> The fundamental problem is that few women gain the technical background to enable them to advance into those areas. "Don't be confused. Women hold many of the jobs in marketing, corporate communications, and public relations. But the field is crying for women who have real technical expertise," says Gates, a Duke trustee, who joined Microsoft in 1987. She held various management positions there, and helped develop many of its multimedia products, such as Expedia, an Internet travel product; Encarta, an encyclopedia; and Cinemania, a movie guide. She also worked on Microsoft Word for MS-DOS and Windows, Microsoft Works, and Microsoft Publisher. In 1994, she married Bill Gates, the company's co-founder, chair, and chief software architect. </p><p></p><center><br /><table align="CENTER" border="0"><tr><td align="TOP"><img src="quote4.gif" border="0" /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP"><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size="2" color="000088"></font></td></tr></table></center><p> </p><p>"Girls may be going into graphic design, but they aren't going into computer programming or advanced computer science courses that will enable them to get high-tech jobs," says Jenkins. "That may lead to a reversal in women's progress. If we don't get the needed education in this field, I fear that women will be in a very disadvantaged position." </p><p>Unfortunately, the educational pipeline isn't filling as it should. Despite the fact that enrollments in computer science courses are rising dramatically, the percentages of women seeking such degrees remain at low levels. Surveys show that while the absolute numbers of undergraduate and graduate degrees awarded were significantly higher in 1998 than in 1997, the percentage awarded to women remained constant. Nationwide, women still obtain less than a third of the bachelor's and master's degrees in the field, and less than 20 percent of the doctorates. At Duke, women represent only 26 percent of the computer science majors, and only 4 percent of the quantitative-science faculty. </p><p>Observers who have studied the problem agree that it starts early, in grade school and junior high. While almost three-fourths of all jobs require computer and Internet skills, only 16 percent of children online are girls, according to Does Jane Compute?: Preserving Our Daughters' Place in the Cyber Revolution, by Roberta Furger (Warner Books, 1998). "Women don't go into computer science to the degree that they should because girls get turned off to math, usually sometime around seventh or eighth grade," observes Kelly Shaw, a 1997 Duke graduate currently pursuing her doctorate in computer science at Stanford. </p><p>This issue has sparked concern throughout the high-tech world. Corporations eager to hire women to fill the demand for skilled technical labor are sponsoring technical women's groups. The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation creating a commission to study why women are underrepresented in the computer and science industries. And the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other organizations support mentoring and similar projects, including a recent grant to Duke, hoping to ensure that women are actively and equally involved in all aspects of technology, that women's needs will be considered in the development of new technologies, and that technology policies everywhere fully take women into account. </p><p>Duke alumnae are pioneers in the brave new world of computer science and electronic technology. As leaders in the field, they are also part of the movement to encourage other women to enter such professions. Their personal stories reflect the national issue, and point to solutions to the problem. </p><p>Watching Kimberly Jenkins in action, one wonders how there could be any gender gap in the information-technology field. She is at the center of some of the most important new trends in the country, sitting not at the pinnacle of power, as in the traditional corporate pyramid structure, but rather at the nexus of influence. Now the preeminent networker, she didn't expect to have such an exceptional role to play in the information revolution. </p><p>She grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, and Peekskill, New York. She attended Duke because of its marine lab and strong science programs, graduating with a biology degree. Both parents were educators--her mother a kindergarten teacher and her father a school superintendent--and Jenkins had a strong commitment to education. Working toward her master's in educational administration at Duke, she also taught high-school biology and chemistry in Durham. She planned, after she received her doctorate, to become a dean of students. </p><p>But life's coincidences would take her in different directions. While a graduate student, Jenkins secured a part-time job as a research assistant for a computer science professor. She learned enough about technology to be fascinated by it--and to accept after graduate school a corporate job as an analyst at Control Data Corporation in Seattle. She worked in an educational technology division that focused on products used widely in schools and corporate training departments. </p><p>Personal interests also played a role in her job choice. "My husband and I did a lot of Outward Bound type of activities. We went to Seattle specifically so we could climb mountains," she says. But after three years, it was apparent that all roads to advancement at Control Data led to the corporation's headquarters in Minneapolis. "There were no mountains in Minneapolis." But there were definitely mountains in Seattle. "I joined this little company called Microsoft--I hadn't even really heard of it before. Although it was respected in the industry, it certainly wasn't the household name it is today. It wasn't even a public company. </p><p>"The company was about to come out with something called Microsoft Word and they needed someone to design a computer-based program to teach people how to use it. I leaned heavily on my background in education." </p><p>The company was developing Microsoft Word for Macintosh computers. After the Mac was introduced, Jenkins saw the opportunity to sell the new software to colleges and universities throughout the country. Microsoft executives, however, doubted the viability of the market. </p><p>Jenkins decided to go for broke. "I went to see Steve Ballmer [then a company executive, now Microsoft president] with two manila file folders in my hand. In one, I had my proposal for starting up an education division from scratch. When he saw it, he said, 'No, we don't care about education; you can't make money selling to universities.' So I handed him what was in my other manila folder: my resignation letter." Impressed, Ballmer and other top Microsoft executives decided to give her a shot. "I was able to generate 10 percent of Microsoft's U.S. revenue in the first year," says Jenkins. "Colleges and universities were buying truckloads of the product. Since then, Microsoft has led the way among all information-technology companies with one of the premier education divisions." </p><p>Jenkins managed the rapidly growing division for several years. But her strong preference for entrepreneurial rather than managerial work led her to move to Palo Alto, California, to supervise market development at another software powerhouse. NeXT, run by Apple founder Steve Jobs, focused on educational products and markets. </p><p>After a few years at NeXT, she again sought new challenges and greater freedom. She established her own consulting firm, advising various technology companies on setting up education divisions. For one project, Jenkins worked with a group of companies creating centers across the country to educate the public about the Internet and state-of-the-art digital media. Through that effort, she met Bob Kerrey, U.S. senator from Nebraska. Kerrey suggested that she create a similar center for U.S. representatives and senators, who were starting to legislate issues about computers and the Internet but had little knowledge about information technology. Supported by grants from such corporations as IBM, Apple, and Microsoft, Jenkins founded Highway 1, a nonprofit organization that works to improve communications between the U.S. government and the public through technology. For four years, she educated individuals in Congress and throughout the federal government on using the Internet and other technologies to obtain information and communicate with others more effectively. </p><p></p><center><table hspace="5" vspace="5" width="25%" border="0"><tr><td align="TOP"><img src="digital3.jpg" border="0" /></td></tr><tr><td valign="TOP"><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size="2" color="000088"><br />Photo: Dennis Brack</font></td></tr></table></center> <p>Jenkins' new Internet Policy Institute tries to move legislators and the general public farther down the electronic road. "We need research so policymakers will have good data, and analysis of that data on which to base their decisions. We are on the edge of a whole new frontier, and we need to be looking at all the legal, economic, and social impacts of the Internet." </p><p>One key area involves women and their role in the information revolution. The IPI wants top-notch researchers to probe the possibilities for digital equity. "It really is a problem," Jenkins says. "For example, the White House recently called me and asked me to attend a press event. 'We really need a woman,' they said. If you ask a room of people who the top women in the computer science field are, the same names come up all the time. It's great that those few women are there, but that in itself says something." </p><p> </p><p>Strong math skills seem to be shared by many of the women who gravitate to computer science. Stacey L. Luoma M.S. '99, a Connecticut native, earned her undergraduate degree in math from Boston College in 1995. Yet just like Jenkins years before her, Luoma describes her entrance into computer science as more accidental than strategic. </p><p>"Computer science wasn't a field that I considered at all," she says. "I had to take an elective my senior year and was considering taking history. But my dad, who is a mechanical engineer, said, 'Why not take computer science?' " Once Luoma tried it, she liked it. "In the spring of my senior year of college, I started applying for jobs. The only openings for those of us with a pure math background were in actuarial sciences or other financial areas. But I liked the applied quality of computer science." While working as a secretary at BankBoston, she took night courses and earned the equivalent of a minor in computer science. She entered graduate school at Duke the following year. </p><p>Luoma says she chose Duke because the program offered the opportunity to work closely with medical, engineering, and other departments. That interdisciplinary approach has paid off in her current job as a software engineer at Evans & Sutherland, a 3-D graphics company in Salt Lake City, Utah. Among other projects, the company produces flight simulators for training military and commercial pilots, as well as such entertainment applications as planetarium programs. </p><p>Luoma works with numerous electrical and mechanical engineers and other experts on such large-scale systems. Her first project has been developing the "head tracker" of a large flight simulation project. "The pilot sits in the middle and can only see what's in front of him or her. We program the connection where the pilot's head is pointing and where the image should be displayed. It's as if you were camping and going around with a flashlight; first you see one image, and then you move the flashlight to the left and see another image." </p><p>She credits Duke with much of her success. "I specialized in computational geometry, which gave me a good background in computer graphics. I think that's why this firm selected me." But she also reports that the percentage of women in her classes at Duke was surprisingly low, especially for the late 1990s. "Of seventeen first-year graduate students, there was only one other girl, and she was from India." </p><p>The problem persists in Luoma's work world. "On my floor at my company, there are about forty computer science, electrical, or mechanical engineers. And of all them, only two are women: me, who just started last year, and another woman, who started six months earlier." </p><p> </p><p>Jenkins and others of her computer generation may have been pioneers on the information highway, but Kelly Shaw is making inroads of her own. Planning to become a professor after earning her Ph.D. from Stanford, she is pursuing the ultimate computer science career destination. </p><p>"In middle school and high school, I wanted to prove that I could do the math and not just follow the pattern of dropping out of it," says Shaw, who grew up in Connecticut, New York, and Florida. "I saw other girls getting turned off to math and computers, believing it was something only geeky people did and that it would be too hard. When I got to college, I decided to continue with math and began taking computer courses. And when I discovered there was a problem for women in the field, I only got stronger in my belief that I was going to get through. I was ticked off. </p><p>"I knew a guy at MIT, and he said all women think they are bad at math--it's a complex all women have, sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy. And that actually egged me on. I have a chip on my shoulder against society for not encouraging and training women in computer science. I want to prove to everyone that they're wrong." </p><p>Shaw says she doesn't regret her decision. "When I finally find a bug in a program and can fix it, it is the biggest high. I love thinking about the issues, working on them on a daily basis." She's been thinking about the issues for a long time. Besides graduating summa cum laude from Duke, she spent three semesters as a teaching assistant, holding one-on-one grading and counseling sessions with other students. Because of her exceptional accomplishments and potential, her Duke professors nominated her for the prestigious Computing Research Association Outstanding Undergraduate Award (she won an honorable mention). More recently, the National Science Foundation selected her as a graduate research fellow. </p><p>Shaw says she received a lot of support </p><p>and encouragement at Duke. Susan Rodger, associate professor of the practice in the department of computer science, "was great," she says. "And [computer science professor] Carla Ellis also became a mentor. She encouraged me to go on in computer science and helped me believe in my ideas. She always made me feel as if I were asking pertinent questions--and she still tries to keep up with what I am doing." </p><p>With her hard work and determination to become a professor, Shaw gives hope that more young women might follow her path and provide the female role models so desperately needed in academe. Despite her achievements, she still harbors doubts. "I will do fine at teaching and mentoring, but I have a lack of confidence as to whether I can direct someone else's research. One of my professors told me that I have good solutions but I need to have more confidence in them. I know that I can do this on an intellectual level, but I don't always feel that way emotionally. I am often at war within myself. </p><p> "When I have bad days, I can be miserable. I ask myself, 'What am I doing here?' A professor with whom I worked on one of my internships was one of only two women in the department, and I often wondered if she asked the same question. There are so many large barriers for women." </p><p> </p><p>What are those barriers that keep women out of, or at least behind in, the high-tech race? And what can be done about it? No one has conclusive answers, which is why governmental and private-sector organizations are studying the issue. But based on the research that's already being conducted and their own personal experience, Duke alumnae and faculty hold their own views. </p><p>Almost everyone agrees that the problem starts early, as early as the first games that girls play. "A lot of what you see on games are violent images, images that are degrading to women. Chasing people around and shooting their heads off just isn't that appealing to girls," says Kimberly Jenkins. She says the </p><p>situation is improving, as software manufacturers give greater attention to the kind of software that might appeal to both sexes. </p><p>Kelly Shaw thinks the problem begins when parents encourage their sons to play on computers more than their daughters. "Boys are given more technical things to play with; they are trained to tinker. In computer science, you have to think a different way, you need to begin playing with things, to see what works and what doesn't, and not just get frustrated because you don't immediately have the perfect answer." </p><p>Getting comfortable with technology at an early age, and earning the confidence that comfort instills, leads to the next step: being able to go into computer science class and not be intimidated. "Males are more confident and are quick to present an answer, even if it is not correct. Even if a guy's wrong, he often never thinks it or admits it," Shaw says. "But women question themselves more, so they end up beating themselves up asking, 'Why is he right and I am wrong?,' when the guy is the one that's wrong after all." </p><p>Susan Rodger, Shaw's professor at Duke, has seen extensive proof of that phenomenon. At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she taught computer science courses before coming to Duke, she initiated a special program funded by the NSF called "PipeLINK" to encourage young people to enter the computer field. "We discovered when we went to visit high schools that the boys were much more aggressive. It was amazing to watch how they would dominate the discussion. It was an eye-opener." </p><p>"Boys might get to the solution fast, and they are going to shout out, 'I got it!' But girls might have a more elegant computer code when they get there--they're the ones who actually approach the problem in the best way," says Melinda Gates. "There are nuances between the way girls and boys approach computer science, and you really have to encourage the girls. Girls need someone to be a mentor or guide who can say, 'you are good at this, you should pursue this area.' But there aren't enough people in the school system today who are really playing that role." </p><p>Boys, supported by parents and teachers, gain the confidence to take more computer courses and excel; girls tend to do the opposite. The trend runs all the way through the college years. "Every guy I respect in the field has had a lot of computer experience outside of class by the time he gets to college," notes Shaw. "But the girls don't, and it's a big problem. A girl often gets into an introductory course where all these guys already know how to do much more. So she is struggling. She feels like an idiot, as if she can't do it." </p><p>Shaw and other women say the "geek factor" also discourages women. "A lot of the guys in computer science are seen as extremely geeky, math-oriented people. Their image--and that of hardcore computer-science women--is of people who wear jeans and T-shirts, have crummy lifestyles, get no exercise, eat poor food, and stay up late at night behind a computer. If you were a young girl, would you want to be someone who has no social skills and no social life?" </p><p>Besides those roadblocks, women can run into subtle and overt discrimination at advanced levels in the business world and education. It all adds up to fewer women with computer science backgrounds in both business and academe--which in turn means fewer role models and mentors to encourage other women, and the turning of a vicious cycle. But if Duke alumnae and faculty see such obstacles, they also see paths around them. "If their daughter has an interest in this area, parents should really encourage her--even when she might want to give it up because she doesn't feel as if she's very good at it," Gates recommends. "Parents should help their daughters stick with it." </p><p>Says Shaw, "Parents should let their daughters tinker more. Let them do what boys do-- rip things apart if they want. It's okay if things break. They also need to tell their daughters the idea that women aren't good in math is just a societal stereotype. And that women can go into math and computer science and still be socially acceptable, not just geeks. Parents need to teach both their sons and their daughters that women can and will do well." </p><p>"If I had a daughter," says Jenkins, who has two young sons, "I would tell her what my mom told me: 'You can do anything. You like that software program? You can create it yourself. What don't you like about it? You are smart enough to be able to improve it.'" </p><p>Schools must also do their part. Melinda Gates tells a story about how a local K-12 school developed a computer science program that allowed children to practice very technical work, such as fixing computers. But the girls started dropping out, even though they were better than the boys. "I told the person who had organized the program to bring some women in from around the area who work in computer sciences so that they can talk to the girls, maybe after school or on a Saturday. Or those women could take girls to their workplace," she says. "It would help girls realize that computers can be a great area for them, not just for boys." </p><p> </p><p>Fortunately, just such a trend is beginning across the country. "Women who have made it are starting to realize that they want more women at the table," notes Jenkins. "And they want to give back." </p><p>Duke professor Susan Rodger is one of those women. As part of her PipeLINK program at RPI, she organized a two-week, residential computer science program to expose twenty high-school girls to different areas of computer science. Rodger knows first-hand the isolation of women in the field. "I often took courses where I was the only woman in the class. One professor called the roll the first day and said, 'Well, I guess we all know who she is.' " </p><p>Rodger says she believes PipeLINK was successful because it gave young girls a much better sense of what they could accomplish through the study of computer science. "A lot of girls think computer science is just spreadsheets, but we talked about different topics-- artificial intelligence, cars that drive themselves, topics that would be of special interest to them. And we definitely had some girls change their minds about the field. One girl was going to be an aerospace engineer, but by the end of the term she had decided she would pursue both computer science and aerospace engineering. The key was simply education, letting them know what computer science really was." </p><p>Duke is encouraging interdisciplinary work and real-world applications of computer science, demonstrating that women can even apply information technology to social problems like pollution, health care, and education. "Many of our faculty work with faculty in other departments. We have a B.A. degree especially set up so you can do a double major of computer science with another discipline," says Rodger. "Software needs to be written for almost every field: medicine, business, education. That makes it much more attractive for women. For example, we have a senior who is majoring in visual arts and computer science and she plans to go into animation." </p><p>Women at Duke can participate in the Howard Hughes Research Fellows program, a summer research mentorship program, which targets women and minority students after their first year. Duke also works with the Computing Research Association Distributed Mentor Project, which matches women undergraduates with female faculty members at other colleges and universities. Most recently, Duke initiated Project Advance, a program funded by the NSF to encourage women in math, computer science, and statistics. An innovative, interdisciplinary year-long seminar, "Perspectives in Science," which will entail guided mentorships, three additional first-year seminars, special speakers, and events, begins this fall. </p><p>A key theme of special programs has been women guiding other women. Virtually every woman cites a mentor as critical to her success. "The first year of study is so overwhelming, it's especially helpful to have a mentor," says Stacey Luoma. "I try to keep up with and support those working toward their Ph.D.," says Rodger, "because so few women are going into academe." Jenkins says, "I still talk often with Jean O'Barr, head of the Duke Women's Studies program. She's been enormously supportive throughout my career." </p><p>Sometimes it just helps to have a woman friend. "One of the biggest assets is other women in the class with whom you can feel a kinship," says Shaw. "In college, I would occasionally get so upset about things that I would think of switching my major. But I had a female friend, and we would work together and bounce ideas off each other. We could share problems and assure each other that we weren't crazy." </p><p>A number of alumnae and faculty members have suggested establishing more scholarships for women in math, science, and computer science. Jenkins has endowed the Kimberly J. Jenkins University Professorship of New Technologies and Society at Duke. As an Internet2 participant, Duke is currently among more than 120 universities working with partners in industry and government to develop advanced Internet technologies. The Jenkins professorship will encourage an interdisciplinary approach to examining the impact of technological innovation on society and culture. One of the areas of research will be women in technology, and Jenkins wants to go further. "I am approaching other women in technology about helping fund seminars, colloquia, and maybe even student research," she says. </p><p>Duke alumnae in information technology also have advice for women not yet in the field. First, they recommend that women try computer science--and then stick with it. "Both males and females should get a technical education in college. It gives you an ability to think about problems and solve them--which is valuable for everyone, even if they are history majors," Shaw says. </p><p>She also encourages women to be assertive: "You have to get used to questioning others, and to asking the other person to explain if something doesn't make sense. If you aren't willing to question what the guys are saying, if you avoid conflict within the group, you can get relegated to documenting what others decide to do. You have to be forceful enough to let others know that you are not going to do just the scut work." </p><p>Women who have been in the field a while also say that discrimination has to be acknowledged, but not accepted. "One of my frustrations is reading articles and seeing the positive spin put on things," says Jenkins. "They don't acknowledge the struggle, despair, and depression that I have often felt. People should know they are not alone--there is real discrimination out there. When the channels weren't open for me, I went out and did my own thing. You need to create your own opportunities. Say what you mean. Speak your own mind. But don't beat your head up against a wall. If you can't progress in an organization, start your own." </p><p>From the Silicon Valley perspective, says Shaw, "So many people find so many opportunities here. The jobs are so fantastic and you can make so much money.É I personally can't understand why women don't see the potential for wealth in the industry. I think it's phenomenal that more women haven't gone into it." </p><p>"Besides opportunity for career progress, women can make a big impact on society," says Jenkins. "As much as I want to see women go into programming, the critical issue is how technology is changing our lives: what it is doing to medicine, education, and agriculture, or the way our families communicate with each other. All these things are very exciting, and women can fit into such areas really well if they get enough technical expertise to complement their creative skills. </p><p>"You have to see what can be done, not just focus on the barriers. I am very optimistic. I am encouraged because there are enough women now that we are starting to get into senior positions where we can make those important policy decisions. It's slow, but it's a lot better than it was. We just have to be patient and keep working at it. </p><p>"When I went into the very first meeting of the Internet Policy Institute board of directors, I was one of the only women at the table. My vision is that in five years I can walk into the room and see that half the people are women. And, by being in that room myself, I have kept the issue alive." </p><p> <!--------------Font Set -------------------> <font size="2" face="Times" style="font:12pt Times; font-weight:light;"> <!--------------authornote-----------------> <hr /><br /><i> <!---Author---> Bray '72 is an editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education and a member of Duke Magazine's Editorial Advisory Board. </i> <!--------------authornote-----------------> </font><font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica" style="font:12pt Arial, Helvetica; font-weight:light;"> <!--------------Font Set -------------------> </font></p><p> </p><p> </p><table width="90%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="5"><!---------------Sidebar Text-----------------><tr><td bgcolor="#808030"> <center> <table width="90%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="5"><!---------------Sidebar Color-----------------><tr><td bgcolor="#808030"> <center> </center><p> <font face="Arial" size="+1" style="font:14pt Arial" color="#FFFFFF"> <!---Title----> WOMEN ON THE WEB </font><br /></p><p> </p></td></tr></table></center> <p> <font face="Arial" size="3" style="font:12pt Arial" color="#FFFFFF"> </font></p><p> </p><p><a href="http://www.awc-hq.org/"><font color="FFFFFF">www.awc-hq.org/</font></a> Association for Women in Computing (AWC). A nonprofit organization, founded in 1978, dedicated to promoting the advancement of women in computing professions. </p><p> </p><p><a href="http://www.cra.org/"><font color="FFFFFF">www.cra.org/</font></a> Computing Research Association (CRA). An association of more than 180 North American academic departments of computer science and computer engineering; its mission is to strengthen research and education in the field and to expand opportunities for women and minorities. </p><p> </p><p><a href="http://www.douglas.bc.ca/leaps/"><font color="FFFFFF">www.douglas.bc.ca/leaps/</font></a> Quantum Leaps Home. A program designed for girls in grades 11 and 12 to meet and talk with women who have challenging high tech jobs. </p><p> </p><p><a href="http://www.girlgeeks.com www.girlgeeks.com</FONT></A> Girl Geeks. Provides online training and chat events with women in the field, as well as Mentor Match technology, which connects girls with well-established technology-savvy women. &#10;<P>&#10;<P><A HREF="></a> Girl Geeks. Provides online training and chat events with women in the field, as well as Mentor Match technology, which connects girls with well-established technology-savvy women. </p><p> </p><p><a href="http://www.iwt.org">www.iwt.org </a> Institute for Women and Technology. Provides workshops and conferences, research, and outreach related to women and high technology. </p><p> </p><p><a href="http://www.systers.org/mecca/"><font color="FFFFFF">www.systers.org/mecca/</font></a> Systers home page. An informal organization for technical women in computing; there are now 2,500 "systers" in thirty-eight countries. </p><p> </p><p><a href="http://www.webgrrls.com/"><font color="FFFFFF">www.webgrrls.com/</font></a> The international online community for women interested in new media, the Internet, and technology. Offers networking, meetings, classes, and job opportunities. </p><p> </p><p><a href="http://www.witi.com/"><font color="FFFFFF">www.witi.com/</font></a> Women in Technology International. Provides news, career opportunities, live chat, articles, and information about new and developing technologies as well as access to online experts. </p></td></tr><!---------------Sidebar Color-----------------></table><!---------------Sidebar Text-----------------><!------------------End Table--------------------><p><br /><img src="dkblu.gif" width="600" height="2" /><br clear="ALL" /></p><p></p><center> <a href="#pagetop"><img border="0" src="totop.gif" /><br /></a> </center><p> <!-- analytics --><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript"> <!--//--><![CDATA[// ><!-- _uacct = "UA-1422454-1";urchinTracker(); //--><!]]> </script><!-- analytics --></p> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2000-06-01T00:00:00-04:00">Thursday, June 1, 2000</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/default_images/dukmag-horizontal-placeholder.jpg" width="238" height="140" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/may-jun-2000" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">May - Jun 2000</a></li></ul></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> No <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue Thu, 01 Jun 2000 08:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18499169 at https://alumni.duke.edu Duke University Alumni Magazine https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/duke-university-alumni-magazine-106 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <img src="online_header.gif" alt="On-Line Staff" /><p> </p><blockquote><font face="Arial, Helvetica"> <img src="magazine.gif" /><br /><ul><nobr></nobr><li><b>Editor:</b> Robert J. Bliwise A.M. '88 <a href="mailto:robert.bliwise@duke.edu"><robert.bliwise@duke.edu></a></li> <nobr></nobr><li><b>Associate Editor:</b> Sam Hull <a href="mailto:sam.hull@duke.edu"><sam.hull@duke.edu></a></li> <nobr></nobr><li><b>Features Editor:</b> Kim Koster<a href="mailto:koster@duke.edu"><koster@duke.edu></a></li> <nobr></nobr><li><b>Science Editor:</b> Dennis Meredith <a href="mailto:dennis@dukenews.duke.edu"><dennis@dukenews.duke.edu></a></li> <nobr></nobr><li><b>Design Consultant:</b> Maxine Mills Graphic Design <a href="mailto:millscarrigan@mindspring.com"><millscarrigan@mindspring.com></a></li> <nobr></nobr><li><b>Publisher:</b> M. Laney Funderburk Jr. '60 <a href="mailto:laney.funderburk@duke.edu"><laney.funderburk@duke.edu></a></li> </ul><img src="dkblu.gif" height="2" width="400" /></font><p> <img src="online.gif" /></p><ul><li>On Line Consultants: <ul><a href="mailto:holden@kitchenmedia.com">By KitchenMedia</a> </ul></li></ul><blockquote> <i>On Line Design by KitchenMedia with technical support from Maxine Mills at Maxine Mills Graphic Design - HTML and Scripting by KitchenMedia </i> </blockquote> <img src="dkblu.gif" height="2" width="500" /><blockquote> Copyright © Duke University. 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//--><!]]> </script><!-- analytics --></p> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2000-06-01T00:00:00-04:00">Thursday, June 1, 2000</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/default_images/dukmag-horizontal-placeholder.jpg" width="238" height="140" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/may-jun-2000" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">May - Jun 2000</a></li></ul></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> No <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue Thu, 01 Jun 2000 08:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18499168 at https://alumni.duke.edu Duke University Alumni Magazine https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/duke-university-alumni-magazine-105 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <a name="pagetop" id="pagetop"></a> <img src="mayjun.gif" alt="Features" /><center> <table width="600"><!------------------Begin Table--------------------><tr><td valign="TOP" width="250"> </td><td valign="TOP" width="450"><font face="Arial, Helvetica"> <img src="features.gif" alt="Features" /></font><p> </p><table width="450"><tr><td valign="TOP" width="25"> <a href="style.html" onmouseover="img_act('menu1')" onmouseout="img_inact('menu1')"><img align="LEFT" name="menu1" src="arrow.gif" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0" id="menu1" /></a> </td><td valign="TOP" width="425"> <!------Story Begin--------> <a href="style.html" onmouseover="img_act('menu1')" onmouseout="img_inact('menu1')"> <b>THE SUBSTANCE OF STYLE </b></a> by Kim Koster <br /> While the most au courant consumer products were once available only to a few and at a premium, the past few years have seen a democratization of design </td></tr><!------Story End--------></table><p> </p><table width="450"><tr><td valign="TOP" width="25"> <a href="divine.html" onmouseover="img_act('menu6')" onmouseout="img_inact('menu6')"><img align="LEFT" name="menu6" src="arrow.gif" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0" id="menu6" /></a> </td><td valign="TOP" width="425"> <!------Story Begin--------> <a href="divine.html" onmouseover="img_act('menu6')" onmouseout="img_inact('menu6')"> <b>THE DOCTOR AND THE DIVINE</b></a> by Kirk Kicklighter<br /> Gradually, medical science has come to realize that spiritual questions are important to treating the whole person -- and to issues of life and death </td></tr><!------Story End--------></table><p> </p><table width="450"><tr><td valign="TOP" width="25"> <a href="digital.html" onmouseover="img_act('menu2')" onmouseout="img_inact('menu2')"><img align="LEFT" name="menu2" src="arrow.gif" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0" id="menu2" /></a> </td><td valign="TOP" width="425"> <!------Story Begin--------> <a href="digital.html" onmouseover="img_act('menu2')" onmouseout="img_inact('menu2')"> <b>CROSSING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE</b></a> by Sarah Hardesty Bray<br /> They may be avid consumers of computers, but women aren't designing many of the new high-tech products, and they aren't among those deciding critical matters of technology policy </td></tr><!------Story End--------></table><p> </p><table width="450"><tr><td valign="TOP" width="25"> <a href="heart.html" onmouseover="img_act('menu3')" onmouseout="img_inact('menu3')"><img align="LEFT" name="menu3" src="arrow.gif" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0" id="menu3" /></a> </td><td valign="TOP" width="425"> <!------Story Begin--------> <a href="heart.html" onmouseover="img_act('menu3')" onmouseout="img_inact('menu3')"> <b>HABITS FOR THE HEART</b></a> by Robert J. Bliwise <br /> Experiencing the age of reinvention: an education in putting stress under control, eating intelligently, and exercising faithfully </td></tr><!------Story End--------></table><p> </p><table width="450"><tr><td valign="TOP" width="25"> <img src="arrow.gif" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0" /></td><td valign="TOP" width="425"> <!------Inactive Story Begin--------> <b>RESCUED AND RELEASED </b> by Monte Basgall <br /> While liberating harbor porpoises from Canadian fishing corrals, marine biologists get a rare chance to study the mysteries of these elusive marine mammals </td></tr><!------Inactive Story End--------></table><p> </p><table width="450"><tr><td valign="TOP" width="25"> <img src="arrow.gif" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0" /></td><td valign="TOP" width="425"> <!------Inactive Story Begin--------> <b>TRACKING THE EFFECTS OF AIDS</b> by Eric Larson <br /> Part epidemiologist and part social worker, a researcher translates an interest in the complexities of health care into public-policy suggestions </td></tr><!------Inactive Story End--------></table><p> </p><p> </p></td></tr><!------------------End Table--------------------></table><p><br /><img src="dkblu.gif" width="600" height="2" /><br clear="ALL" /></p><p></p><center> <a href="features.html#pagetop"><img border="0" src="totop.gif" /><br /></a> </center><p> </p></center> <!-- analytics --><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript"> <!--//--><![CDATA[// ><!-- _uacct = "UA-1422454-1";urchinTracker(); //--><!]]> </script><!-- analytics --> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2000-06-01T00:00:00-04:00">Thursday, June 1, 2000</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/default_images/dukmag-horizontal-placeholder.jpg" width="238" height="140" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/may-jun-2000" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">May - Jun 2000</a></li></ul></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> No <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue Thu, 01 Jun 2000 08:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18499167 at https://alumni.duke.edu